French troops surrounded the Malian town of Diabaly yesterday, keeping Islamist rebels who had seized it three days ago bottled up while a West African military force took shape.

Meanwhile the first detachment of a West African regional force arrived in Mali later yesterday to reinforce French and Malian troops which have struggled to push back battle-hardened al-Qaeda linked rebels despite seven days of air strikes.

A contingent of around 100 Togolese troops, which arrived at Bamako international airport was due to be joined shortly afterwards by Nigerian forces already en route from Kaduna airport, in the north of the oil-producing state.

The rapid arrival of the UN-mandated African mission, which had not been due to deploy until September, was a boon for former colonial power France, which has warned that Islamist control of northern Mali – a vast desert area twice the size of Texas – posed a threat to the security of the West.

French troops, which had moved northwards from Bamako in an armoured column on Tuesday, pinned down some Islamist fighters in the small town of Diabaly but held back from launching a full-out assault as the al-Qaeda linked rebels had taken refuge in the homes of civilians, residents said.

French forces, now numbering some 1,400 soldiers, had begun ground operations on Wednesday against an Islamist coalition grouping al Qaeda’s North African wing, Aqim, and the home-grown Ansar Dine and Mujwa militants.

“The Islamists are still in Diabaly. They are very many of them. Every time they hear a plane overhead, they run into homes, traumatising the people,” said one woman who fled the town with her three children overnight.

France began ground operations against an Islamist coalition grouping al Qaeda’s North African wing, Aqim, and the homegrown Ansar Dine and Mujwa militants on Wednesday after six days of air strikes.

President Francois Hollande ordered the intervention in the former French colony on the grounds that the Islamists who had taken over the north could turn it into a “terrorist state” which would pose a threat beyond its borders. They will stay until stability returns, he said.

French forces now total some 1,400 troops, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday, and their numbers are expected to rise to 2,500. At least eight West African countries, including Chad, Togo and Nigeria, have promised contingents.

Mali’s recent troubles began with a coup in Bamako last March that ended a period of stable democratic rule. In the confusion that followed, Islamist forces seized large swathes of the north and imposed a strict rule reminiscent of Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Military experts say France and its African allies must now capitalise on a week of hard-hitting air strikes by seizing the initiative on the ground to prevent the insurgents from withdrawing into the desert and reorganising.

Diabaly is a rural town with a population of about 35,000 people, situated about 360 kilometres from Bamako and near the border with Mauritania, where Aqim has bases.

Diabaly’s mayor, Salif Ouedrago, who fled on Wednesday, told Malian state radio: “There were deaths on the side of the jihadists. They buried their dead yesterday.”

Meanwhile, the Malian army rushed reinforcements to a town closer to the capital Bamako yesterday after Islamist fighters were spotted near the Mauritania border.

With African states facing huge logistical and transport challenges to deploy their troops, Germany promised two Transall military transport planes to help fly in the soldiers.

Britain has supplied two C-17 military transport planes to ferry in French armoured vehicles and medical supplies. The US is considering logistical and surveillance support but has ruled out sending in US troops.

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