Malian forces appear poised to retake key town

BAMAKO, MALI - Backed by French air strikes, Malian forces appeared close to recapturing a key central town where bands of al-Qaida-linked fighters had holed up, France's defense minister said Sunday.

The French military has spent the past nine days helping the West African nation of Mali quash a jihadist rebellion in its vast northern desert. The comments Sunday from Jean-Yves Le Drian, however, appeared to cast some doubt on local military claims that the town of Diabaly had already been recaptured from the Islamists.

The town of 35,000, which hosts an important military camp, was taken over by al-Qaida-linked militants last week.

"Right now, the town of Diabaly is not retaken," Le Drian told France-5 TV. "(But) everything leads us to believe Diabaly is going to head in the positive direction in the coming hours."

The French military said its fighter planes and helicopter gunships had carried out a dozen operations in the previous 24 hours -- half of them to strike "terrorist vehicles." The report came late Sunday in a statement on the military's Website.

Previously, Mali's military had claimed the government was back in control of Diabaly -- a potential breakthrough in the French-led campaign to oust extremists there.

The contrasting accounts were emblematic of the confusion in the embattled West African country, where French forces opened an air campaign on Jan. 11 and have been building up troop levels to help restore government control in central and northeast Mali.

Video obtained by the Associated Press from Diabaly on Saturday showed burned-out vehicles, scattered bullets and several armored vehicles belonging to the Malian army lying abandoned and damaged along roadsides. Displaced residents and Malian officials described how Islamists fled the town on foot after days of French airstrikes that destroyed their vehicles.

For government supporters, the incursion signaled an alarming drive by the jihadists into central Mali -- and closer to the capital of Bamako -- from the base they have established in the country's vast northeast. The Islamists captured the Texas-sized northeastern expanse nine months ago, exploiting a power vacuum after a military coup in the distant capital.

Also Sunday, French forces extended their deployment northward from the central town of Markala, reinforcing their presence in the towns of Niono and Mopti, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman.