African News Agency : Welcome

The President said new air strikes overnight had "achieved their goal". One target was the town of Diabaly, which rebels entered yesterday. West African military chiefs will meet in Mali on Tuesday to discuss how an alliance with the French will work. France began its intervention on Friday to halt the Islamists' advance south. Late on Monday, the UN Security Council unanimously backed the intervention. Mr Hollande, on a visit to the French regional military base known as Peace Camp in Abu Dhabi, said: "For now, we have 750 men and the number will increase. New strikes overnight achieved their goal." He said that assembling an African military force to work with the French troops could take a "good week". Mr Hollande told RFI radio: "We are confident about the speed with which we will be able to stop the aggressors, the enemy, these terrorists." The French contingent is expected to rise to 2,500 in the coming weeks. Witnesses in Diabaly, 400km (250 miles) north-east of Mali's capital, Bamako, said there had been heavy air strikes overnight to try to dislodge Islamists who had taken the town from Malian forces on Monday. However, Mr Hollande said the Islamists had not captured it, but were merely hiding there "to protect themselves", adding: "They will be chased out." French war planes have carried out a series of air strikes since the intervention began on Friday. Islamists are reported to have withdrawn from the major towns of Timbuktu and Gao. One spokesman for the Ansar Dine militant group, Senda Ould Boumama, said the withdrawal was a "tactical retreat" to reduce civilian casualties. One resident of Timbuktu told AFP: "The mujahideen have left. They are really scared." However, one spokesman for the Islamist group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, told AP: "I would advise France not to sing their victory song too quickly. They managed to leave Afghanistan. They will never leave Mali." At least 11 Malian soldiers and a French helicopter pilot have died in Mali since Friday's intervention. More than 100 militants are reported to have been killed. Islamist groups and secular Tuareg rebels took advantage of chaos following a military coup to seize northern Mali in April 2012.