FRENCH Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says Islamist rebels in Mali have seized the town of Diabali, 400 kilometres north of the capital, in the government-held south.
"We knew there would be a counter-offensive towards the west," he told BFM Television on Monday.
"They have taken Diabali, which is a small town, after heavy fighting and resistance from the Malian army, which was insufficiently equipped at that exact point."
A local government official in the area told AFP: "The Islamists are in the town of Diabali. They are numerous. This morning they exchanged fire with Malian soldiers then the shooting stopped and the Islamists entered the town."
A Malian security source said the Islamists had "come from the Mauritanian border where they were bombed by the French army."
A regional security source confirmed the attack, which he said was being led by Abou Zeid, a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
"They left the Mauritanian border to avoid raids by French planes," he said.
The French offensive kicked off on Friday to block the advance of Islamist forces towards the capital from their bases in the north, which they have controlled since last April.
On Sunday, French Rafale fighter planes struck bases used by al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Gao and Kidal, two of the main towns in northern Mali.
Sixty Islamists were killed in Gao alone on Sunday, according to residents and a regional security source.
French warplanes attacked jihadist positions in the town of Nampala some 50 kilometres north of Diabali, as well as a base in Lere, near the border with Mauritania.
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