After Nuland weighed in, the reference to Ansar al-Sharia was scrubbed from the account.
An Ansar Dine rebel spokesman told a Mauritanian website they had made a "tactical withdrawal".
In Timbuktu, Ansar Dine arrested and detained people accused of robbery and looting.
CNN: Grave conditions reported as rebels capture northern Mali
Ansar Dine later announced its withdrawal from talks, but this appeared to be no more than a negotiating tactic.
And Tuareg Islamist leader Iyad ag Ghali -- leader of the group Ansar Dine -- also remains at large.
Militants from the Ansar Dine group, which controls much of northern Mali, have started to destroy Timbuktu's ancient tombs.
Iranians remain uncomfortably aware that the Ansar-e-Hizbullah, a semi-official vigilante group, has in the past been accused of murdering reformists.
The French may profess satisfaction at scattering Ansar Dine, thanks to months of painstakingly compiled intelligence on the group's bases.
Mr Megarief says signals were intercepted between Ansar al-Sharia and al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, an umbrella for jihadist groups in north Africa.
One of Ansar Dine's lieutenants, Iyad Ag Ghaly, was killed in the fight over the central town of Konna, security sources said.
According to the statement, the faction is headed by Alghabass Ag Intalla, an important Ansar Dine leader and influential figure in Kidal.
But their ability to work together and fight, should Ansar Dine militants somehow evade the Franco-Malian advance, is very much in question.
"The big question was about Ansar Dine, " said another Security Council diplomat.
On Wednesday, Ansar Dine gunmen came to the library, said Mr. Alhadi.
Ebrahimi was a founding member of the Ansar-e Hezbollah group, which like many others has its roots in the Iran-Iraq war in the late 1980s.
Ansar Burney, Pakistan's human-rights minister, had discovered Mr Singh's plight himself.
Most Iraqi Kurds blame Ansar al-Islam, an Afghan-trained group of Kurdish Islamists, which the Americans say has links to al-Qaeda, or Yemenis abetted by local Ansaris.
Ansar al-Dine, which controls Timbuktu, is more moderate and has tried to co-operate with local leaders, though it has failed to create a working civil administration.
Kidal - home of the head of Ansar Dine, the main militant group in northern Mali - was bombed overnight by French forces, Malian officials say.
But it seems Ansar Dine and MUJAO were operating on their own strategic timetable, catching many off guard -- including civilians who were forced to flee the fighting.
While most Malians are Muslims, the majority belong to the Sufi sect, not the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam followed by the Ansar Dine and Mujao rebel groups.
Reports have also emerged that a senior figure in the main militant Islamist movement - Ansar Dine - has been captured near the Algerian border by a rival separatist group.
In October 2007, the Dallas Morning News reported on warnings from Kurds in northern Iraq of Iranian support for an al-Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al-Islam, in their region of Iraq.
Shortly after French forces invaded last month, a faction called the Islamic Movement for Azawad said it was splitting from Ansar Dine, and rejecting "all forms of extremism and terrorism".
Political and social commentator Mohammed Ansar also urged restraint.
Kidal, 1, 500km (930 miles) north-east of the capital Bamako, was until recently under the control of the Ansar Dine Islamist group, which has strong ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
In Libya, these groups are blending with local militant groups, including members of Ansar al Sharia, which the U.S. implicated in the 2012 attacks on U.S. outposts in Benghazi, in eastern Libya.
The president of Libya's parliament, Mohammed al-Magarief, asserted that U.S. intelligence had intercepted communications between elements of AQIM and Ansar al-Sharia, a group widely blamed for playing a part in the attack.
On Thursday, Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur said eight detained in connection with that assault include members of Ansar al-Sharia, though he added that not all the attackers came from one specific group.
"This is very serious, " said Ousmane Halle, mayor of the fabled city of Timbuktu, now under the control of Ansar Dine, a militant group that seeks to impose strict Sharia, or Islamic law.
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