Well-armed Islamic fighters foreshadow protrated civil war in northern Mali

A Malian officer closes a cell where suspected Islamist rebel group the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, MUJAO, fighters are held in Gao, northern Mali, Monday Feb. 11 2013, one day after MUJAO fighters engaged in a firefight with Malian forces.The attack in Gao shows the Islamic fighters, many of them well armed and with combat experience, are determined and daring and it foreshadows a protracted campaign by France and other nations to restore government control in this vast Saharan nation in northwest Africa. <AP Photo/Jerome Delay>