Mali ( French troops take back key Mali town from militants )

French troops take back key Mali town from militants

French soldiers have achieved their first victories in Mali, recapturing a key town from al-Qaeda and foiling an Islamist advance towards the Niger river.

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Malian soldiers on their way Niono, 340km north of Bamako Photo: AFP

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Some 1,800 French troops are now in Mali, with the total force expected to reach 2,500 Photo: EPA

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France deployed troops to guard the bridge at Markala, while sending special forces across the river to help the Malian army to counter-attack Photo: EPA

 

By David Blair, Sarakala

6:56PM GMT 18 Jan 2013

Convoys of French armoured personnel carriers moved north of the Niger, heading past the village of Sarakala and driving into the Sahelian plains.

The national army, supported by the French, seized back the town of Konna in central Mali from "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM) and its allies.

The fall of Konna last week was the key event that triggered the French intervention. Its capture left only a single weak garrison standing between AQIM and the capital, Bamako.

But the army announced that Konna was back in their hands. A military statement said: "We have wrested total control of Konna after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy." France later confirmed the Malian army's claim. The recapture of Konna lifts the immediate threat to Bamako and the rest of southern Mali.

But AQIM's fighters have also opened a new front in a different region of southern Mali, seizing the town of Diabaley on Monday and striking towards the north bank of the Niger.