The second deputy speaker of the Malian parliament Assarid Ag Imbarcaouane said on Sunday "that since the country's north has been left in the hands of Ansar Dine, MUJAO and the Al-Qaeda...more destruction beyond the holy shrines should be expected."

The declaration by the member of parliament comes as a reaction to the destruction of holy shrines and tombs in the northern town of Timbuktoo.

"Today, it's the mausoleums that were destroyed. We are destroying our own culture, a good number of things which each one of us believed in and tomorrow, we do not know what will happen," he noted.

He said that there are already victims in Gao, Timbuktoo and Kidal where elected municipal councillors have been killed.

According to the same parliamentarian who was one of the Malian elected leaders who defended his country's cause at the European parliament, "it's necessary that we have peace amongst us, the political leaders, first in southern Mali. And then we reorganize our army, we morally arm it and equip it well. And then we can conquer the northern regions of our country," he said.

He urged the government to move fast and seek the support of the international community to defeat the rebel groups that have occupied the northern region for the last three months.

Elsewhere, the president of the Association of Ulemas in Mali Daouda Mohamed Lamine Dia who spoke to Xinhua, condemned the destruction of the mausoleums in Timbuktoo.

"Besides the occupation of two thirds of our national territory, with the destruction of the mausoleums in Timbuktoo, it's our national unity that is being threatened," he said.

He called for the protection of other localities which have holy mausoleums especially at Nioro du Sahel, Djenne and Dili so that they cannot be destroyed.