BAMAKO/SEGOU, Mali — The first West African regional forces arrived in Mali on Thursday to reinforce French and Malian troops battling to push back al Qaida-linked rebels after seven days of French air strikes.

A contingent of around 100 Togolese troops landed in Bamako and was due to be joined by Nigerian forces already en route. Nigerien and Chadian forces were massing in Niger, Mali's neighbor to the east.

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The scrambling of the U.N.-mandated African mission, which previously had not been due for deployment until September, will be a boon for France, the former colonial power in Mali.

French troops, which had moved northwards from Bamako in an armored column on Tuesday, pinned down some Islamist fighters in the small town of Diabaly. But French forces held back from launching an all-out assault as the insurgents had taken refuge in the homes of civilians, residents said.

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

Residents in the town of Konna, to the north of the central garrison town of Sevare, said Islamists had fled as Malian soldiers backed by French troops deployed.

"Life is difficult for the people of northern Mali and the international community has the duty to help these people," said Togolese Lieutenant Colonel Mawoute Bayassim Gnamkoulamba.

"That is why we think that it is necessary for us to protect Mali and we are proud today to fulfill that mission."

French forces, numbering some 1,400 soldiers, began ground operations on Wednesday against an Islamist coalition grouping al Qaida's North African wing AQIM and the home-grown Ansar Dine and MUJWA militants.

Averting creation of a 'terrorist state'
French President Francois Hollande ordered the intervention on the grounds that the Islamists who had taken over the poor West African country's north could turn it into a "terrorist state" which would radiate a threat beyond its borders.

Hollande has pledged they will stay until stability returns to Mali but, in the first apparent retaliatory attack, al Qaida-linked militants took dozens of foreigners hostage at a gas plant in Algeria, blaming Algerian cooperation with France.

Meantime, the United States agreed to a French request for airlift capacity to help troops and equipment to Mali, a limited expansion of American support in the battle against Islamist rebels there, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

One U.S. official said the Air Force could start cargo flights, likely using C-17 aircraft but possibly also larger C-5s, in as little as a day. But details have yet to be worked out and no timetable has been decided.

A total of 2,500 French troops are expected in Mali but Paris is keen to swiftly hand the mission over to West Africa's ECOWAS bloc, which in December secured a U.N. mandate for a 3,300-strong mission to help Mali recapture its north.

A rebel push into central Mali was last week halted by bombings by French aircraft and the deployment of ground troops.

A convoy of armored vehicles, fuel tankers and ambulances and around 200 soldiers from Mali's eastern neighbor Niger was positioned at that eastern border, witnesses said.

A Reuters witness at the scene said heavy weapons fire rang out as troops tested artillery.

Communications with residents in Islamist-controlled towns have become more difficult as some mobile phone towers have stopped working. Residents said rebel fighters are suspicious of anyone using phones, fearing they are passing information to the enemy.

"There are no longer any police stations. (The Islamists) have dispersed across the city, mixing in with the population," said Ibrahim Mamane, a resident from the town of Gao who reached the border with Niger.

"The population is ready and is waiting for the French forces with open arms. If they attack Gao, the people will fight the Islamists with their bare hands," he added.

Reuters journalists travelling north of Bamako saw residents welcoming French troops and, in places, French and Malian flags hung side by side.

Mali's recent troubles began with a coup in Bamako last March, ending a period of stable rule that saw a series of elections. 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 capitalize 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 reorganizing.

"The whole world clearly needs to unite and do much more than is presently being done to contain terrorism," Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said.

French fighter jets pounded an Islamist rebel stronghold in northern Mali Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital Bamako.

France is determined to end Islamist domination of north Mali, which many fear could act as a base for attacks on the West and for links with al-Qaida in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

The attack on Gao, the largest city in the desert region controlled by the Islamist alliance, marked a decisive intensification on the third day of French air raids, striking at the heart of the vast territory seized by rebels in April. The rebels have occupied the northern two-thirds of the poor West African country.

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Upward of 200 rebels have reportedly died in the firefight. Malian authorities said 11 soldiers were killed during a battle in Konna, and about 60 others were wounded.

France has deployed about 550 soldiers to Mali for “Operation Serval” – named for an African wildcat. France is leaning on African nations to also contribute troops for an operation that the United Nations has stressed should be “African-led, African-owned.”

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara immediately pledged 3,300 African soldiers. Former French colonies Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso have all pledged to deploy 500 troops within days.

Algeria, which shares a northern border with Mali, has allowed France to make full use of its airspace, said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. Fabius said he was grateful for Algeria’s support given that the country’s leadership have pushed for a political solution over a military intervention, worried that al-Qaida militants and refugees would be pushed into southern Algeria.

The United States is considering sending a small number of unarmed surveillance drones to Mali as well as providing logistics support, a U.S. official told Reuters. Britain and Canada have also promised logistical support.

As fighting took place in the north, Bamaka was calm, with the sun streaking through the dust enveloping the city. Some cars drove with French flags draped from the windows to celebrate the French intervention.

Hundreds of Malians lined up to donate blood destined for their troops locked in a fierce battle against Islamist rebels occupying the northern two-thirds of the poor West African country.

The road ahead could be hugely expensive and last months, not weeks, warned Reuben Brigety, one of the U.S. State Department’s leading officials for Africa.

"A massive, massive undertaking," he said when he spoke at London’s Chatham House in late October. "That is incredibly difficult terrain; it's a vast expanse. It will take a long time to take and hold."

-- Reporting by Reuters' reporters Bate Felix, Chine Labbe, John Irish, William Maclean, Catherine Bremer, Lamine Chikhi, Adama Diarra, Tiemoko Diallo, Rainer Schwenzfeier, Joe Bavier, Leila Aboud, Phil Stewart.

 

Algeria, a key power in north Africa, has given tacit approval for African-led military intervention to stop Islamic militants in neighboring Mali, sources in Algeria and France said.

The former French colony shares a 1,200-mile border with Mali, and is wary of any outside interference and conflict spilling over its borders.

It fears military action in Mali could push al-Qaida militants back into southern Algeria as well as triggering a refugee and political crisis, especially among displaced Malian Tuaregs heading north to join tribes in Algeria.

Although Algiers would not be able to veto an operation, it would be diplomatically risky for African countries backed by Western powers to intervene in Mali without Algeria's consent, especially as the conflict could drag on for many months.

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However, after weeks of diplomatic cajoling led by France, Algiers has now reluctantly agreed that foreign troops will be needed to eradicate the Islamist threat.

Algeria is Africa's biggest country and a top oil and gas exporter and has the largest military in Africa, and second-largest in the Middle East after Egypt.

It continues to rule out any direct support to the mission.

'The new Afghanistan'? West turns its attention to Mali

"At the end of the day, we won't oppose a military intervention in Mali as long as foreign troops are not stationed on our soil,'' said an Algerian source informed about discussions on Mali.

With six hostages held by the Islamists and fearful of an attack on home soil, France is eager for swift action.

"Algeria now accepts the principle of a military intervention, which wasn't the case before," a senior French diplomat said.

He said the change in position came after a high-level meeting in the Malian capital Bamako on Oct. 19 that brought regional and international players to the negotiating table.

A French defense ministry source said there was "tacit'' agreement and that Paris did not expect more from Algiers.

Algeria has repeatedly advocated a diplomatic solution in Mali since Tuareg rebels and Islamists captured two thirds of the country after an army coup in Bamako in March. The Islamist militants, some linked to al-Qaida, later hijacked the revolt.

The Bamako meeting followed a French-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution urging Mali to engage in dialogue with Tuareg Islamist rebels Ansar Dine if they cut links with radical groups, a move that satisfied Algiers' calls for dialogue.

Paris had until now considered Ansar Dine among the al Qaida-linked groups and refused to negotiate with them.

The resolution also asked African states and the United Nations for a Mali military intervention plan within 45 days.

A second Algerian official said Algiers would do its best to find a diplomatic solution, but could also potentially support Malian troops by providing weapons for a future operation.

Terrorist dens
When a coup in March removed President Amadou Toumani Toure, it revealed a deep rot in a country once seen as a model of democracy for the region. Bamako had tried to run Mali's north through alliances with a local elite involved in criminality — rather than by tackling long-standing issues — and that accelerated the collapse as a power vacuum persisted.

Al-Qaida's north African wing, led by two Algerians, Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Abou Zeid, has extended its influence partly through loose alliances. Its partners include Ansar Dine, a group of Tuareg-led rebels seeking to impose sharia, and the Arab-dominated MUJWA, say both local and Western officials.

Money from criminal enterprises has enabled the Islamists to outgun rival rebel groups. "(The Islamists) can afford to pay people but we cannot," said Mohamed Attaher, a senior official with MNLA, a rebel group that kicked off an uprising in January but in June was pushed out of areas it controlled by MUJWA.

The United Nations has evidence that Islamists enlisting children in Mali's north are paying their families a one-off fee of about $600 for each new young fighter, plus monthly payments of about $400, according to Ivan Simonovic, the U.N.'s Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta voiced concern about the presence of AQIM in Mali, but stressed the need to work with countries in the region to address it.

"We need to work with the nations in the region. They all agree that we're facing the same threat there from AQIM," Panetta said, adding any future operations would have to be developed and executed "on a regional basis."

"And so our goal right now is to try to do everything we can to bring those countries together in a common effort to go after AQIM."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to talk with Algerian officials about Mali when she visits the country early next week.

Diplomats say any intervention in northern Mali is still some months away with a three-phased plan likely to consolidate the south first, followed by an operation to re-take northern cities and finally a mission to go after militants.

In anticipation, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told lawmakers extra troops had been sent to secure Algeria's borders.

"We won't allow any threat to harm our nation," he said. "Algeria wants to avoid having terrorist dens at its frontiers."

The change in Algeria's position comes amid an improvement in ties with France 50 years after it gained its independence.

In a symbolic gesture before a state visit to Algeria in December, President Francois Hollande acknowledged for the first time last week that Algerians were massacred at a 1961 pro-independence rally in Paris. Historians say more than 200 may have been killed in the police action.

Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa analyst at Eurasia Group, said there was still a clear red line for Algeria which was that it would not intervene or commit troops.

"They are adopting a sort of benevolent neutrality. The Algerians are going to stand by and watch. I can't see collaboration at any level other than intelligence sharing."

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Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore, has been hospitalized with a head wound following an attack by demonstrators who stormed his palace on Monday, Reuters and Al Jazeera reported.

Protesters entered the compound unopposed and tore up pictures of Traore. Some of the demonstrators attacked the caretaker president, knocking him unconscious, according to Al Jazeera.

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"He (Traore) has just been rushed to hospital ... They beat him seriously and tore his clothes," Bakary Mariko, spokesman for the CNRDRE body of soldiers who last month agreed to allow a transition back to civilian rule, told Reuters by telephone.

Mali coup leaders threatened with new sanctions

Mid-ranking army officers seized power in March in protest at the government's failure to end a Tuareg-led rebellion in the north, but the coup backfired and triggered a lightning advance by rebels who now control two-thirds of the country.

Traore's stint in charge has been overshadowed by the military maintaining its grip on much of day-to-day power in the country.

Junta chief Capt. Amadou Sanogo agreed this weekend to allow Traore to remain in charge but crowds took to the streets on Monday calling for him to quit.

"There is no question of Dioncounda staying as president of Mali," said Daouda Diallo, one demonstrator amongst the group that marched up the hill to the presidential palace.

Demonstrators chanted slogans hostile to the 15-state West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which had threatened sanctions unless Traore is allowed to remain in charge.

"Sources in the hospital told me Traore had head injuries, it is likely he had head injuries," Martin Vogl, a journalist based in Mali told Al Jazeera.

"What will be interesting to see if the president will go back to his job, and what will the junta leaders now do," said Vogl.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The ousted president of Mali was reported to be safe late Thursday after mutinous soldiers stormed his palace, took over state-run television and closed the western African nation’s borders.

Mutineers calling themselves National Committee for the Reestablishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State would not confirm the whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure, Al Jazeera news agency reported.

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In a late-night interview on state television, a committee spokesman identified as Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo said only that Toure is "doing well and is safe."

A military source told AFP, the French news agency, that Toure fled the palace and was holed up in a military camp guarded by elite “Red Beret” paratroopers. Toure, 63, is a former paratrooper. He was due to leave the presidency after elections scheduled April 29, having already served the maximum two terms allowed by Malian law.

Another committee spokesman, identified as Lt. Amadou Konare, also on state television, did not mention the elections but said the junta "solemnly commits to restore power to a democratically elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are re-established."

Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, Mali's foreign minister, was among those being held by mutineers, Al Jazeera reported.

The coup in a country earlier seen as a democratic success brought condemnation from France, which formerly held Mali as a colony, the Organization of Islamic Co-operation, the White House and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Earlier: Coup topples 'incompetent regime'

The mutineers said they overthrew the government because of its mishandling of an ethnic Tuareg insurgency backed by al-Qaida in the country's north that began in January after many fighters returned heavily armed from Libya, where they served in Moammar Gadhafi’s army.

Tuareg rebels in northern Mali took advantage of confusion over the coup and pushed south to occupy positions vacated by government forces, sources said Thursday.

A Malian officer in the northern town of Kidal said rebels had occupied the military camp in Anefis, 60 miles to the southwest.

"The army has pulled back to Gao," a source in Timbuktu, another main town in the north, told Reuters, asking not to be named. "There is no longer any military leadership. (The rebels) will take the towns in the north," he said.

This article includes reporting by Reuters.

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Updated at 10:47 a.m. ET: Renegade Malian soldiers went on state television on Thursday to declare they had seized power in a coup after the government's failure to quell a nomad-led rebellion in the north.

The soldiers of the newly formed National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR) read out a brief statement after heavy weapons fire rang out around the presidential palace in the capital Bamako throughout the night.

The United States later condemned the coup.

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"The CNRDR ... has decided to assume its responsibilities by putting an end to the incompetent regime of Amadou Toumani Toure," said Amadou Konare, spokesman for the CNRDR.

Curfew
"We promise to hand power back to a democratically elected president as soon as the country is reunified and its integrity is no longer threatened," said Konare, flanked by about two dozen soldiers. A subsequent statement declared an immediate curfew "until further notice."

The statements made no reference to the whereabouts of Toure, who for the past decade has presided over one of the more stable governments in West Africa and was due in any case to step down after elections scheduled for late next month.

A soldier at the presidential palace who asked not to be named because he feared reprisal told The Associated Press the presidential guard had failed to defend the palace against the renegade soldiers. The unidentified soldier said while the troops had seized control of the seat of government, they could not find Toure, the country's democratically elected leader.

A statement from U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said: "We echo the statements of the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and other international partners denouncing these actions. We call for calm and the restoration of the civilian government under constitutional rule without delay, so that elections can proceed as scheduled.

"We stand with the legitimately elected government of President Amadou Toumani Touré. Mali is a leading democracy in West Africa and its institutions must be respected."

The gold- and cotton-producing nation of Mali has struggled to contain a northern rebellion launched late last year by local Tuareg nomads joined by heavily armed fellow Tuaregs returning from Libya after fighting for ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The rebellion, in which dozens have been killed and nearly 200,000 civilians have fled their homes, has added a new layer of insecurity to a region where al-Qaida allies have carried out a spate of kidnappings of Westerners and other crimes.

It has also exposed Bamako's lack of control over the northern half of a country twice the size of France.

The mutineers who complain they lack arms and resources to face the separatist insurgency.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called in a statement for calm and for grievances to be settled democratically.

In a sign of spreading support for the mutiny, two military sources in the northern town of Gao confirmed the arrests of several senior officers in the town, a regional operations centre.

Bamako was briefly paralysed last month as hundreds of Malians put up street barricades and burned tyres in the streets to protest at the government's handling of the rebellion.

Toure, in power since 2002, has said he is planning after April elections. The former paratroop commander overthrew a dictatorship in a 1991 coup and relinquished power a year later before returning to office via the ballot box.

'The talks went badly'
A military source said a trigger for Wednesday's events was a visit by the defense minister to a barracks in the town of Kati about 13 miles north of Bamako.

"The minister went to speak to troops but the talks went badly and people were complaining about the handling of the crisis in the north," the source said.

A defense ministry official who was at the meeting said a soldier accused the defense minister of betraying them by not giving them means to fight the rebels. Soldiers then began throwing rocks at the minister before taking weapons from the armory and shooting in the air.

Tuareg fighters seeking to carve out a desert homeland in Mali's north have made advances in recent weeks, including the seizure this month of the key garrison town of Tessalit by the Algerian border.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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