Media caption The BBC's Mark Doyle reports from the Mali capital Bamako, where he is one of the few correspondents on the ground 
 
 Islamist fighters in Mali have seized a town in government-controlled territory, though France said the Islamists were "in retreat" elsewhere. 
 
 French officials said Diabaly, 400km (250 miles) from the capital, Bamako, was taken in a counter-attack. 
 
 France began a military intervention on Friday in an effort to halt Islamists who took control of northern Mali last year and were advancing towards Bamako. 
 
 The UN Security Council has convened to discuss Mali at France's request. 
 
 Aid workers said many people had been fleeing areas targeted by French air strikes over the past four days. 
 
 It is noticeable that already there are questions being asked about the purposes of Operation Serval Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris Mali a risk for 'new' Hollande 
 
 The Islamists began a counter-attack on Diabaly, home to a key Mali army base, on Sunday night, hours after French warplanes had targeted the town. 
 
 French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM television: "They took Diabaly after fierce fighting and resistance from the Malian army that was not able to hold them off at that moment." 
 
 One resident told the BBC that the fighting had lasted for about 10 hours. 
 
 "About five [rebel] vehicles entered the town," he said. "Now they're stationed about 200m (650ft) from the military camp but they haven't taken the camp. They've killed a few soldiers." 
 
 A Malian military source told AFP news agency that rebels had come from the Mauritanian border area after being attacked by French planes. 
 
 Rebels 'in retreat' 
 
 The BBC's Mark Doyle reports from Bamako that although the Islamists are still hundreds of miles away, the war was felt in the Malian capital as the president visited wounded soldiers in hospital there. 
 
 France intensified its air strikes on rebel targets over the weekend, with its aircraft also bombing the town of Gao in eastern Mali. On Monday witnesses told AFP there had been air strikes on Douentza for a fourth consecutive day. 
 
 Analysis Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is the group that worries the French authorities most, but the view amongst most experts is that it does not currently have the capacity and networks on the ground to carry out a serious attack within France in the short term. The more immediate worry for France may be retaliation closer to Mali - there are 6,000 citizens in Mali itself but embassies, businesses and private citizens may all be at risk across North Africa. In the past experts argued that AQIM looked as much like a criminal network as a militant group. However, with the shift of its centre of gravity from Algeria to northern Mali, it acquired a sanctuary which began to change its character. Paris has clearly decided that the short-term risk of increased threat from intervening is outweighed by the importance of denying a militant group a long-term sanctuary. Islamist threat to French interests 
 
 "The developments are in line with our expectations," said Mr Le Drian. "The terrorist groups are in effect in retreat." 
 
 But he said French forces had encountered "heavily armed militants" in the west, where he described the situation as "difficult". 
 
 Rebels of the al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), said that France would pay for its intervention. 
 
 Spokesman Abou Dardar told AFP: "France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France." 
 
 Separately, militants in Somalia have published a photograph purportedly showing one of two French soldiers killed during a failed hostage rescue attempt. Friday's raid on town of Bulo Marer, south of Mogadishu, came hours after the French intervention in Mali. 
 
 At least 11 Malian soldiers and a French helicopter pilot have died in Mali. More than 100 militants are reported to have been killed. 
 
 Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres said it had received numerous reports of people being killed or injured in Konna, and that in Douentza, bombardments and fighting were preventing the wounded from making it to hospital. 
 
 MSF said at least 200 people had fled to Mauritania by vehicle, with many more heading to the border on foot. 
 
 African troops pledged 
 
 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said France's involvement would last "a matter of weeks" and rejected any parallel with the protracted Western mission in Afghanistan. 
 
 He said preparations were "gathering pace" for the deployment of a West African force, including 600 troops from Nigeria, and 500 each from Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo and Senegal, and 300 from Benin. 
 
 "This international mobilisation is essential because France does not want to stand alone alongside Mali," he said. 
 
 Foreign forces in Mali Some 550 French troops in Bamako and Mopti 
 
 French Mirage and Rafale jets 
 
 Nigeria to send 600 troops; Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo expected to send 500 each, and Benin 300 
 
 UK providing two C17 cargo planes for French effort 
 
 France says further logistics help from Denmark and US France's war in the desert 
 
 France has sent about 550 troops to the central town of Mopti and to Bamako, and a defence ministry official told Reuters troop numbers would increase to 2,500 in coming days. 
 
 The UK is offering logistical support, with two cargo planes made available for a week to support French operations. 
 
 Islamist groups and secular Tuareg rebels took advantage of chaos following a military coup to seize northern Mali in April 2012. 
 
 But the Islamists soon took control of the region's major towns, sidelining the Tuaregs. 
 
 One Islamist group, Ansar Dine, began pushing further south last week, seizing Konna. 
 
 The town has since been recaptured by Malian troops with French aerial support. 
 
 The battle for Mali 
 
 Image caption French forces have bombed rebel bases in Mali, where Islamist rebels have threatened to advance on the capital Bamako from their strongholds in the north. France said it had decided to act to stop the offensive, which could create "a terrorist state at the doorstep of France and Europe". 
 
 Image caption The landlocked area of West Africa was the core of ancient empires going back to the 4th Century. The French colonised Mali, then known as French Sudan, at the end of the 19th Century, while Islamic religious wars created theocratic states in the region. 
 
 Image caption Mali gained independence in 1960 but endured droughts, rebellions and 23 years of military dictatorship until democratic elections in 1992. In the early 1990s, the nomadic Tuareg of the north began an insurgency over land and cultural rights. 
 
 Image caption The insurgency gathered momentum in 2007, and was exacerbated by an influx of arms from the 2011 Libyan civil war. Tuareg nationalists, alongside Islamist groups with links to al-Qaeda, seized control of the north in 2012 after a military coup by soldiers frustrated by government efforts against the rebels. 
 
 Image caption The fighting in the north and the establishment of a harsh form of Islamic law has forced thousands to flee their homes - some estimates say more than half the northern population has fled south or across borders into neighbouring countries. ||||| BAMAKO/DUBAI France pledged on Tuesday to keep troops in Mali until stability returned to the West African country, raising the specter of a long campaign against al Qaeda-linked rebels who held their ground despite a fifth day of air strikes. 
 
 Paris has poured hundreds of soldiers into Mali and carried out 50 bombing raids since Friday in the Islamist-controlled northern half of the country, which Western and regional states fear could become a base for terrorist attacks in Africa and Europe. 
 
 Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that, despite French air support, Malian forces had not been able to dislodge Islamist fighters from the central Malian towns of Konna or Diabaly, just 350 km (220 miles) northeast of Bamako. 
 
 A column of French armored vehicles rolled northward from the dusty riverside capital of Bamako towards rebel lines on Tuesday, the first major northward deployment of ground troops. A military official declined to comment on their objective. 
 
 Thousands of African soldiers are due to take over the offensive. Regional armies are scrambling to accelerate an operation which was initially not expected until September and has been brought forward by France's surprise bombing campaign aimed at stopping a rebel advance on a strategic town last week. 
 
 President Francois Hollande, on a visit to the United Arab Emirates during which he sought Gulf states' financial backing for the African-led mission, suggested France would retain a major role in its former colony for months to come. 
 
 "We have one goal. To ensure that when we leave, when we end our intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and there are no more terrorists threatening its territory," Hollande told a news conference. 
 
 Paris has said it plans to deploy 2,500 soldiers to bolster the Malian army and work with the intervention force provided by West African states. 
 
 AFRICAN TROOPS 
 
 West African Defense chiefs met in Bamako on Tuesday to approve plans for the swift deployment of 3,300 regional troops, foreseen in a United Nations-backed intervention plan. After failing to reach a final agreement, they adjourned their talks until Wednesday. 
 
 Nigeria pledged to deploy soldiers within 24 hours, and Belgium said it was sending transport planes and helicopters to help, but West Africa's armies need time to become operational. 
 
 Mali's north, a vast and inhospitable area of desert and rugged mountains the size of Texas, was seized last year by an Islamist alliance combining al Qaeda's north African wing AQIM with splinter group MUJWA and the home-grown Ansar Dine rebels. 
 
 Any delay in following up on the French air bombardments of Islamist bases and fuel depots with a ground offensive could allow the insurgents to slip away into the desert and mountains, regroup and counter-attack. 
 
 The rebels, who French officials say are mobile and well armed, have shown they can hit back, dislodging government forces from Diabaly on Monday. 
 
 Residents said the town was still under Islamist control on Tuesday despite a number of air strikes that shook houses. 
 
 An eye witness near Segou, to the south, told Reuters he had seen 20 French Special Forces soldiers driving toward Diabaly. 
 
 In Konna, whose seizure on Thursday sparked French involvement, residents said Islamist fighters were camped just outside town. Army troops had also withdrawn after entering the town on Saturday. 
 
 Malians have largely welcomed the French intervention, having seen their army suffer a series of defeats by the rebels. 
 
 "With the arrival of the French, we have started to see the situation on the front evolve in our favor," said Aba Sanare, a resident of Bamako. 
 
 QUESTIONS OVER READINESS 
 
 Aboudou Toure Cheaka, a senior regional official in Bamako, said the West African troops would be on the ground in a week. 
 
 The original timetable for the 3,300-strong U.N.-sanctioned African force - to be backed by western logistics, money and intelligence services - did not initially foresee full deployment before September due to logistical constraints. 
 
 Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Guinea have all offered troops. Col. Mohammed Yerima, spokesman for Nigeria's Defense ministry, said the first 190 soldiers would be dispatched within 24 hours. 
 
 But Nigeria, which is due to lead the mission, has already cautioned that even if some troops arrive in Mali soon, their training and equipping will take more time. 
 
 Sub-Saharan Africa's top oil producer, which already has peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur and is fighting a bloody and difficult insurgency at home against Islamist sect Boko Haram, could struggle to deliver on its troop commitment of 900 men. 
 
 One senior government adviser in Nigeria said the Mali deployment was stretching the country's military. 
 
 "The whole thing's a mess. We don't have any troops with experience of those extreme conditions, even of how to keep all that sand from ruining your equipment. And we're facing battle-hardened guys who live in those dunes," said the adviser, who asked not to be named. 
 
 FRENCH LINING UP SUPPORT 
 
 France, which has repeatedly said it has abandoned its role as policeman of its former African colonies, said on Monday that the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Germany had also offered logistical support. 
 
 Fabius has said Gulf Arab states would help the Mali campaign, while Belgium said on Tuesday it would send two C130 transport planes and two medical helicopters following a request from Paris. 
 
 A meeting of donors for the operation was expected to be held in Addis Ababa at the end of January. 
 
 Security experts have warned that the multinational intervention in Mali, couched in terms of a campaign by governments against "terrorism", could provoke a jihadist backlash against France and the West, and African allies. 
 
 U.S. officials have warned of links between AQIM, Boko Haram in Nigeria and al Shabaab Islamic militants fighting in Somalia. 
 
 Al Shabaab, which foiled a French effort at the weekend to rescue a French secret agent it was holding hostage, urged Muslims around the world to rise up against what it called "Christian" attacks against Islam. 
 
 "Our brothers in Mali, show patience and tolerance and you will win. War planes never liberate a land," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, al Shabaab's spokesman, said on a rebel-run website. 
 
 U.S. officials said Washington was sharing information with French forces in Mali and considering providing logistics, surveillance and airlift capability. 
 
 "We have made a commitment that al Qaeda is not going to find any place to hide," U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters as he began a visit to Europe. Panetta later said the U.S. had no plans to send troops to Mali. 
 
 One U.S. military source said the haphazard nature of French involvement reminded him of the U.S. entry into Afghanistan. 
 
 "I don't know what the French endgame is for this," the source said. "Air strikes are fine, but pretty soon you run out of easy targets. Then what do you do? What do you do when they head up into the mountains?" 
 
 (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi, Felix Onuah in Abuja and Tim Cocks in Lagos, Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations,; Richard Valdmanis in Dakar, Joe Bavier in Abidjan, Jan Vermeylen in Brussels; Writing by Pascal Fletcher, Daniel Flynn and David Lewis; editing by Richard Valdmanis, Giles Elgood and Will Waterman) ||||| Story highlights U.S. military plans to fly French troops to nations near Mali, an official says 
 
 France has been helping Mali's government battle Islamist militants from its north 
 
 Several other nations have vowed support for Mali 
 
 French airstrikes have recently struck near the central town of Diabaly 
 
 French warplanes pounded Islamist militant targets in Mali Thursday as international efforts to help the African nation's government fight insurgents gained momentum. 
 
 For a fourth consecutive day, airstrikes hit in and around Diabaly -- a town in central Mali, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital of Bamako -- prompting men, women and children to flee or find cover, witnesses said. 
 
 "People are desperate to get out," said Ibrahim Toure, a civilian who left Diabaly on Thursday. 
 
 French fighter jets targeted the town since Monday, after Islamist rebels settled in a military camp on its outskirts that had been abandoned by Malian soldiers. 
 
 The Islamists told Diabaly's residents they could stay, and they prevented some from leaving, said Cheick Oumar, a construction worker in the town. 
 
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 "People are left without protection," he said. "The rebels say they will not hurt anyone, but people are afraid they will turn Diabaly into a new Islamist stronghold and impose Sharia law." 
 
 Mali had been one of the most successful democracies in Africa until last year, when a coup toppled the president and Islamists capitalized on the chaos by establishing themselves in the north. 
 
 There, they imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia law by banning music, smoking, drinking and watching sports on television. They also damaged Timbuktu's historic tombs and shrines. 
 
 The International Criminal Court has launched a war-crimes investigation amid reports that residents have been mutilated and killed for disobeying the Islamists. The United Nations has noted accounts of amputations, floggings and public executions such as the July stoning of a couple who had reportedly had an affair. 
 
 As the rebels moved southward toward Bamako, such reports prompted an international response, led by the French. 
 
 In addition to sending its warplanes, the French have stationed about 1,400 troops inside Mali in "Operation Serval." 
 
 Europe's largest powers appeared united in their goal of removing al Qaeda-linked militants from the West African nation, where Islamist rebels are fighting to form their own territory in the north. This effort gained renewed urgency after militants -- upset at Algeria for allowing warplanes to use its airspace to launch attacks in Mali -- took hostage scores of Algerian and foreign workers at an Algerian gas facility about 60 kilometers (about 40 miles) west of the Libyan border. 
 
 Nations including Germany, Belgium and Canada have pledged to contribute transport planes. Others, such as Italy, are promising "logistical support" for the operation. 
 
 The United States is supporting the French-led effort in Mali "with intelligence and airlift," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 
 
 The plan is for U.S. military aircraft, accompanied by U.S. military security forces, to fly French troops and equipment into a neighboring country -- because the airport in Bamako is "very busy" -- after which they can move on the ground, a U.S. defense official said. 
 
 Washington has not decided whether to grant French requests for surveillance and aerial refueling services, the official said. 
 
 By this weekend, U.S. trainers will be in Africa "to offer pre-deployment training and sustainment packages" for troops from African nations who are heading to Mali. 
 
 In response to a request for help from Malian authorities, European Union foreign ministers agreed Thursday on a mission to train Mali's army, the EU said. The mission is to include instructors, support staff and force protection for 15 months, it added. The agency has said about 450 non-combat troops will be launched, perhaps by next month. 
 
 French President Francois Hollande has said it was a "necessary decision" to enter the country. 
 
 "There are terrorist networks which, following what happened in Libya last year, have installed themselves in a large part of West Africa and are trying to destabilize the area and are involved in trafficking," he said Thursday. "Our duty is to put an end to this, and France assumes its responsibility." ||||| Islamists flee French air strikes in Mali 
 
 BAMAKO — French air strikes forced Islamist guerrillas to flee towns in northern Mali and Paris secured new international support for military action as the militants struck back, seizing a small western town. 
 
 The Islamists said they had made a "tactical retreat" from Timbuktu and other key towns where they have imposed a brutal version of Islamic law for nearly 10 months. 
 
 But they struck back in western Mali where they took the small town of Diabaly from the country's weakened army, highlighting the daunting campaign ahead to restore order in the West African nation. 
 
 French jets on Monday hit Douentza, 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Bamako, which the Islamists have held since September. But residents said the fighters had left before the warplanes arrived. 
 
 In Timbuktu, where inhabitants have been executed or had limbs cut off in some of the worst abuses, the Islamists reportedly fled in anticipation of an attack. 
 
 "The mujahideen have left. They are really scared," said one resident in the historic city, where the militants have destroyed centuries-old Muslim monuments. 
 
 In Gao, another northern city held by the Islamists, the jihadists were nowhere to be seen after bombing by Rafale warplanes on Sunday, residents there said. 
 
 At least 60 insurgents were killed in Sunday's assault, according to residents and a security source. 
 
 Mali's Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly said in Paris that he believed more than 100 Islamists had been killed in the four days since France launched operations to stem a guerrilla advance towards Bamako. 
 
 A spokesman for the Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) group, Senda Ould Boumama, said the withdrawal was a "tactical retreat" to reduce civilian casualties, in comments published on Mauritanian news website Alakhbar. 
 
 A leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), vowed revenge. "France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France," said Abou Dardar of the Al-Qaeda-linked group. 
 
 On top of the use of Rafale fighters and helicopter attacks, about 650 French troops are in Mali to halt the Islamist advance, according to the French defence ministry. 
 
 While jolted by France's arrival, the insurgents remained on the offensive in areas where French troops were not yet operating. The militants seized Diabaly, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Bamako. 
 
 "We knew there would be a counter-offensive towards the west," French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM Television. 
 
 "They have taken Diabaly, which is a small town, after heavy fighting and resistance from the Malian army, which was insufficiently equipped at that exact point." 
 
 Le Drian acknowledged that French forces were facing a "difficult" situation in the west, where he said the rebels are well armed. 
 
 France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius hailed the "quasi-unanimous" international backing for the offensive, strongly supported by Mali. 
 
 "We cannot simply push them back, we have to chase them away," Coulibaly told French television after meeting Fabius. "We simply now cannot allow a timeout for these forces to reorganise." 
 
 A meeting of the 15-nation UN Security Council on Mali also expressed unanimous "understanding and support" for the military intervention, France's UN ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters. 
 
 France and other council countries want to speed up the deployment of a UN-mandated 3,300-strong West African intervention force in Mali. 
 
 Nigeria, which will lead the force, plans to have 600 troops on the ground "before next week," President Goodluck Jonathan said. Benin, Ghana, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo have also pledged troops. 
 
 Britain and Canada have offered military transporters to the French military and the United States said it will share intelligence and provide logistical support. 
 
 "I commend France for taking the steps that it has," US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said. 
 
 Algeria said it had closed its 2,000 km (1,250 mile) desert border with northern Mali to stop Islamists crossing into the country. 
 
 The Islamists seized upon the chaos of a military coup in Bamako in March to seize northern Mali, sparking widespread international fears that they could set up a terrorist safe haven. 
 
 The UN Security Council had given approval for a military offensive that UN officials had said could not be launched until September. 
 
 But the Islamist offensive and France's military intervention has led to predictions by diplomats that the plans will be reviewed. 
 
 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
– France's foreign minister is optimistic about the campaign it started in Mali Friday, saying it will be over within "weeks." He rejected a comparison to the Afghanistan war, adding, "we have no intention of staying forever," the BBC reports. The country's defense minister was also positive, saying the mission is "developing favorably," even as Islamist fighters today seized Diabaly, a government-controlled territory 250 miles from the capital of Bamako. A Malian intelligence agent tells the AP that French pilots launched a raid near Diabaly this morning, which marks an expansion of the conflict—until now, raids were occurring in the distant north. The defense minister says Islamists are retreating in the east, but still causing France difficulty in the west. Aides to French President Francois Hollande say they are better trained and better armed than had been expected. More from the conflict: Mali rebels have sworn to take revenge; one leader for al-Qaeda offshoot Mujao tells AFP, "France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France." French authorities are on high alert for retaliatory attacks on home soil. The European Union will send military trainers to the Malian army late next month or early in March, Reuters reports, but the EU does not plan for those trainers to have any combat role in the country. And NATO says France has not asked it for any help, Reuters adds. A spokesperson says the organization is "concerned" about the situation in Mali and welcomes France's efforts, but "there has been no request, no discussion [within NATO] on the situation in Mali, the alliance as such is not involved in this crisis." Hollande is holding a cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis today, and the UN Security Council will also meet today at France's request. The New York Times takes an extensive look at the crisis and its background, noting that the US for years attempted to stop the Islamic militants from gaining a foothold in the region. But last year, many of the commanders trained by America defected. "It was a disaster," says a senior Malian officer. It was also an American-trained officer who led the coup that eventually overthrew Mali’s elected government. Meanwhile, a west African intervention force is putting together the promised troops who will be sent to Mali though it's not clear when they will arrive.