The Malian military announced late Saturday that the government was now controlling Diabaly, marking an important accomplishment for the French-led offensive to oust the extremists from northern and central Mali.
"People are calm since the Islamists left the city of Diabaly before it was taken by the Malian and French forces yesterday," said Oumar Coulibaly, who lives in the nearby town of Niono.
The Associated Press obtained video filmed Saturday by a local resident, which shows people from Diabaly inspecting the fighters' vehicles and charred weaponry destroyed by French airstrikes and Malian ground forces.
Several armored vehicles belonging to the Malian army also can be seen lying abandoned and damaged at the side of roads in Diabaly, a town of 35,000 that is home to an important military camp.
The video marks the first pictures to emerge from the area, which was taken over by al Qaeda-linked militants at the beginning of the week. The zone remains blocked off by a military cordon and journalists have not been able to access the area so far.
Residents who had fled to the nearby town of Niono and officials described how Islamists fled the town on foot after days of French airstrikes that destroyed their vehicles.
"They tried to hijack a car, but the driver didn't stop and they fired on the car and killed the driver," said a Malian intelligence officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.
The Islamists first seized control of the main towns in northern Mali nine months ago, taking advantage of a power vacuum after a military coup in the distant capital of Bamako.