Black flags in Timbuktu

The drawback to waging a global counter-terrorism campaign is that, just when you think you have one bunch of Islamist militants on the run, another one pops up to take its place. For all the breakthroughs chalked up by those prosecuting the war against al-Qa’eda, the movement has re-emerged in new guises in Somalia and Yemen. The murderous riots in Libya last week, ostensibly triggered by a homemade American video, were being quickly traced back to what may be the latest and safest home for al-Qa’eda: northern Mali.

Those who hoped the war on terror was about to end in Afghanistan have not wanted to think about Mali. But it is growing harder to ignore the fact that al-Qa’eda in the Islamic Maghreb now runs a chunk of territory three times larger than Britain. For most in the intelligence community, the establishment of this desert kingdom is on a par with Osama bin Laden’s decision to move to southern Afghanistan in the late 1990s.