CNN's Ingrid Formanek reported from Mali and Joseph Netto from Atlanta, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London.

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CNN's Salma Abdelaziz and Ingrid Formanek, and journalists Ian Lee and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.

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"It was quite evident that something big was going to happen, " said Formanek, a CNN producer in Rome then.

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