D. About 90 percent of Mali's people are Muslim. Islamist militants, including jihadi fighters from about 10 countries across North and West Africa, controlled much of northern Mali and were advancing south before the French joined struggling government troops last month.

Q: Residents of cities abandoned by the Islamists say most fighters fled in the night long before the French arrived. The militants are believed to have taken refuge in the . . .

A. Amazon Jungle

B. Sahara Desert

C. Great Rift Valley

D. Kalahari Desert

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B. Much of northern Mali lies in the Sahara Desert and is sparsely populated. Most of the nation's people -- 90 percent -- live in the tropical south.

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Q: Thirty French jets also bombed militants' training and communication centers near Mali's northern border with . . .

A. Algeria

B. Burkino Faso

C. Niger

D. Senegal

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A. Last month, Islamist millitants who seized and killed hostages at a natural gas plant in Algeria claimed they were retaliating against France's military intervention in Mali.

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Q: Most Malian Muslims belong to the Sufi sect, while the Islamist militants are trying to impose their strict Wahhabi/Salafi beliefs. The spread of Salafism has been supported by rulers of the nation with Islam's holiest site in . . .

A. Alexandria

B. Jerusalem

C. Mecca

D. Damascus

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C. Masjid al-Haram -- "The Sacred Mosque" -- in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is considered by Muslims to be the holiest place on Earth. The nation's ruling royal House of Saud allied with Salafi scholar 'Abd al-Wahhab in 1744 to spread the "true" principles of Islam.

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