Rebels in Mali start counter-offensive Members of the militant group Ansar Dine - one of three Islamist groups fighting the official Malian government - stand guard last year at Kidal airport, in the north of the country after taking control of the region French troops are briefed on Sunday before boarding a transport plane in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, on their way to Mali to assist government forces fighting the Islamist rebels A French Mirage fighter jet is loaded with weaponry in N'Djamena, Chad. Air strikes against Islamist groups continued on Monday on the third day of the joint Malian-French offensive A Mirage fighter jet refuelling in the air over Chad as the offensive began. Air attacks on militant bases achieved "extremely tangible results," the French government claimed British military personnel in front of a French army medical armoured personnel carrier inside a British C17 transport aircraft at an army base in Evreux, north of Paris, on Monday. The UK is helping French forces with logistics A French soldier on guard at Nice International airport on Monday as France's government took precautions at public buildings and transport networks in case of reprisals People waiting to donate blood in Mali's capital Bamako sit next to a newspaper hailing the French intervention with the headline "Long live France!" on the front page Girls attend a French class at a secondary school in Bamako on Monday. Schools in the capital and in the garrison town of Kati had been closed because of growing insecurity but are now reopening Militiamen at a checkpoint at a bridge in Markala, on the road to Diabaly, in central Mali. Despite the French aerial bombardment, Islamist fighters fought back and overran Diabaly on Monday Islamist rebels in Mali fought back on Monday after three days of French air strikes, moving closer to the capital Bamako after capturing a small town in government-held territory near the centre of the country. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French defence minister, said the al-Qaeda-linked militants had taken control of Diabaly, in the Segou region. The garrison town is about 250 miles from Bamako, the closest the rebels have come to the capital. "They took Diabaly . . . after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian army that was not able to hold them off at that moment," Mr Le Drian told BFM television. France, which is concerned that northern Mali is becoming a terror haven and potential threat to the west, responded to a plea for help from Mali's government last Thursday by sending in jets and attack helicopters. Several African countries have pledged to send up to 2,000 troops but they have yet to arrive and are unlikely to be ready for early deployment. The rebel resistance, which followed Sunday's air strikes in the northern stronghold of Gao, was expected. The three Islamist groups - Ansar Dine, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) - are well armed and mobile, with hundreds of four-wheel drives, some mounted with heavy guns, as well as armoured vehicles and weapons captured from Mali's army when the rebellion started early in 2012. Together, the rebels have a "solid core" of 3,000-4,000 trained fighters, according to Mathieu Guidère, a professor of strategic monitoring at the University of Toulouse, in France. "They have been preparing for an invasion since August, when the international community and especially France starting talking about taking action," said Prof Guidère. The fighters who attacked Diabaly reportedly approached from the Mauritanian border, where the AQIM has camps. Mali's army is weak. The rebels have vowed to suck France into a long war. After French jets attacked the Islamist stronghold of Gao on Sunday, far behind rebel lines, Omar Ould Hamaha, a leader of the MUJAO, told Europe 1 radio that France had opened the "gates of hell," and had "fallen into a trap much more dangerous than Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia." Another MUJAO spokesman told AFP that a statement about the seven French hostages being held by the militants would be made later on Monday, implying they were now at greater risk. France, the former colonial ruler of Mali, has called a UN Security Council meeting on Monday to discuss the situation there. While it says its main aim is to support an operation by west African and Malian troops to retake the north, France has pledged to continue air strikes, and appears intent on seriously damaging the Islamists" military capabilities. Mr Le Drian said French air attacks on militant bases at Gao had achieved "extremely tangible results which ended in a dispersion of this terrorist group towards the east and the south," and that the operation was "developing favourably." West African troops were only due to deploy to Mali under a UN-sanctioned mission in September, to enable proper planning and the passing of the rainy season, which is due to start in June. West African leaders now want it to happen sooner. The 2,000 troops due to arrive in the coming days are being sent on a bilateral basis. Laurent Fabius, France's foreign minister, said on Monday that French military intervention would last "a matter of weeks." But a French official said this was more likely to be "tens of weeks," to allow time for the Malian army and west African troops to be in a position for a ground offensive into the north.