A young child runs through the deserted side streets of Gao , Northern Mali, Monday Jan. 28, 2013. French and Malian troops held a strategic bridge and the airport in the northern town of Gao on Sunday as their force also pressed toward Timbuktu, another stronghold of Islamic extremists in northern Mali, officials said. Malian soldiers descended on the city of Timbuktu on Monday after al-Qaida-linked militants fled into the desert having set ablaze a library that held thousands of ancient manuscripts. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay), APTOPIX