-
French forces carried out a second day of air strikes against Islamist rebels in Mali on Saturday and sent troops to protect the capital Bamako in an operation involving several hundred soldiers. - Source: Reuters
More than 100 people including rebels and government soldiers were killed in Mali during French air strikes and fighting over the strategic town of Konna, Malian military sources and witnesses say.
An army officer at the headquarters of Mali's former military
junta in Bamako said nearly 30 vehicles carrying Islamist fighters
had been bombed and "over 100" rebels had been killed in
fighting.
"We have driven them out, we are effectively in Konna," Malian
Defence Ministry spokesman Lt Col Diaran Kone told Reuters. "We
don't know if they have planted mines or other traps, so we are
moving with caution. There were many deaths on both sides."
A shopkeeper in Konna said he had counted 148 bodies in four
different locations in the town. Among the dead were several dozen
uniformed government soldiers. Others wore traditional robes and
turbans.
Fighters from the Islamist coalition that currently controls
northern Mali do not wear military clothing.
A resident in the town of Gao, the stronghold of the MUJWA Islamist
group, said fighters had begun arriving with their dead on
Friday.
"Electric power is available at the mortuary, which is not always
the case. And the Islamists have bought plenty of burial mats," the
man said.