French jet pounded the supply bases of Qaeda-linked militants in northern Mali, as Paris pushed on Monday for a quick deployment of the African troops in the former French colony.
French jet pounded the supply bases of Qaeda-linked militants in northern Mali, as Paris pushed on Monday for a quick deployment of the African troops in the former French colony.
Dozens of French fighter jets carried out massive air strikes on suspected militants training and logistics centers in the area around their last stronghold of Kidal over the weekend in the mountainous north-east of the landlocked county.
"It is about destroying their rear bases, their depots," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France Inter radio.
"They have taken refuge in the north and the northeast but they can only stay there long-term if they have ways to replenish their supplies. So the army, in a very efficient manner, is stopping them from doing so."
The extremist fighters who have controlled northern Mali for 10 months have fled into the Adrar des Ifoghas massif in the Kidal region near the Algerian border, after being driven from their strongholds by the three-week French military intervention.
They are believed to be holding seven French hostages with them.
After a lightning advance saw the French-led troops take back Timbuktu and Gao last week, French, Malian and Chadian troops have been working for nearly a week to secure Kidal.
But the former colonial power is keen to wrap up its leading role in the offensive, and Fabius said his country's troops could rapidly withdraw from the fabled city of Timbuktu.
"We want to be rapidly relieved by the AFISMA African forces in the cities that we hold," Fabius told France Inter radio.
In Timbuktu a withdrawal "could take place very quickly, we are working on it," he said.
France said it is eager to pass the baton to some 8,000 African troops pledged for the UN-backed AFISMA force, still deploying at a snail's pace, after sweeping to Mali's aid on January 11 as the Islamists threatened to advance south towards the capital Bamako.
However, President Francois Hollande vowed during a visit to Mali on Saturday that he would not “abandon the country to chaos.”
"France will stay by your side as long as necessary, as long as it takes for Africans themselves... to replace us," he said.
