Malian troops recapture rebel stronghold Ali Ag Noh, right, stands with his family in front of his house on Friday, Janurary 25, in the village of Seribala, Mali, after his cousin and brother-in-law, Aboubakrim Ag Mohamed, and a cattle rancher, Samba Dicko, were shot dead on January 24, allegedly by the Malian Army. According to Noh, Mohamed, a Tuareg, and Dicko were shot in the head in Seribala after being accused by two Malian soldiers of being Islamists or aiding Islamists. NEW: Malian and French forces recapture the city of Gao Bamako, Mali (CNN) -- Malian forces loosened the grip that Islamist militants' hold in the country's north with the retaking of the city of Gao With the support of French forces, the Malians entered and took control of Gao, which for months had been a militant stronghold, the French defense ministry said. The advance was made in stages, with forces taking Gao's airport and the main bridge leading to town before entering the rest of the city. The United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, has called for an increase in international aid for the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by the fighting in the country. More signs al Qaeda in Mali orchestrated Algeria attack More than 150,000 refugees have fled Mali into neighboring countries, and another 230,000 are displaced inside Mali, the agency said. The military's advance into Gao may shed more light on the conditions that residents there have faced. According to the U.N. agency, one former Gao resident told of a hospital stripped of medicine by the armed militants and filling with bodies. As the Malian troops advance, some other countries in the region are joining the French force aiding them. Between 700 and 800 African troops from Benin, Nigeria, Togo and Burkina Faso have arrived, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday, and a number of Senegalese troops and up to 2,000 from Chad are on the way.