“You journalists, you make us sick,” the assailants shouted at Saouti Haïdara as they beat him on a muddy ground outside town in the early hours of July 13, he said. Mr. Haïdara, editor of L’Independent and considered the dean of the Malian press corps, suffered a broken arm and bruises throughout his body.

Image Credit... The New York Times

“It is you who are undermining this country!” the men beating Abderrahmane Keïta yelled at him, he recalled, on the night of July 2. A trap had been set for Mr. Keïta, editor of L’Aurore: he had been promised news from the Islamist-held north.

“We have denounced the cowardice of the Malian Army for failing to defend and protect the populations of the north,” Mr. Keïta said in an interview on Wednesday, recalling how he was left in a muddy field covered in bruises and robbed of more than $2,000.

Much of the opposition, having given up on the Malian Army, wants an outside force to come in to clean up the mess in the north. The Economic Community of West African States, known as Ecowas, is willing, but so far there has been no invitation from what remains of authority here, or backing from the United Nations or United States.

Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said in an interview that military force would likely be needed to roll back the Islamists’ gains in the north, but he said the Malian troops would have to take the lead in any such effort, something he acknowledged they were incapable of right now.

“Over time, it will be necessary to go in and root out the terrorist elements, but any operations in the north must be well planned, well organized, well resourced and well thought out,” said Mr. Carson, who visited Mali last week and spoke to leaders there. “It must have a significant Malian military component in front.”