http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324235104578241293424381974.html

Militants allied with al Qaeda on Monday pushed into territory controlled by the Malian army, despite a barrage of French airstrikes over the weekend on rebel strongholds in the country's vast desert north.

A group of Islamist fighters attacked and defeated the Malian army in Diabaly, taking control of the small town located south of rebels' strongholds in the north, according to French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The advance opens up another route to the capital city of Bamako and highlights the risks of a French military campaign conducted in tandem with a weak Malian army.

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AP

Soldiers control a checkpoint at a bridge in Markala, about 25 miles outside Segou on the road to Diabaly, in central Mali, on Monday.

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"They took Diabaly after intense fighting and after resistance by the Malian army, which was not sufficiently equipped at the time," the minister told French television.

The Malian army confirmed that rebels had progressed toward the south.

"They're in the process of entering that zone," said Lt. Col. Idrassa Traore, Mali's army spokesman.

Diabaly, in central western Mali, is about 30 miles inside the front line separating the Islamist-controlled north and the government-controlled south.

On Friday, France sent fighter jets and special forces across the vast desert north of Mali, reversing an eight-month-long stalemate between the former French colony and the fundamentalist rebels who overran Mali's north last year.

French forces had focused on regaining control of Konna, which had fallen into rebel hands last week. French and Malian officials have described this small town in central Mali as a strategic gateway for a possible rebel attack on Bamako.

Over the weekend, fighter jets from France attacked targets deep in northern territories controlled by Islamist groups, notably the large city of Gao near the front. The French also targeted sites along the border with Mauritania, as well as Kidal, a remote trading post near Algeria.

The most recent developments Monday show how widely Mali's war could expand as a barrage of bombs uproots Islamist rebels from their strongholds in northern Mali, and spur an exodus to the south.

Mali's desert north encompasses a stretch of the Sahara the size of France. It has been pinpointed as a haven for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group's Saharan front. The al Qaeda-backed militants have furnished arms, training, and recruits to local outfits bent on imposing strict Islamic law as widely as possible across West Africa.

"They are heavily armed and very determined," said Mr. Le Drian, the French minister, referring to the fighters who attacked Diabaly on Monday.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2159855&forum_id=2#22430039)

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