Islamist fighters leave central Mali towns

DIABALY, Mali -- French and Malian armored columns rolled into the towns of Diabaly and Douentza in central Mali on Monday after the al-Qaida-linked rebels who had seized them fled into the bush to avoid airstrikes.

France said the advance was a significant step in its campaign to break Islamist fighters' grip over Mali's vast desert north, a presence raising fears of the region becoming an African launchpad for international militant attacks.

"This advance by Mali's army into towns held by their enemies is a clear military success for the government in Bamako and for French forces supporting the operation," French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

France, which has made 140 bombing sorties since Jan. 11, plans eventually to hand over the military operation to a UN-sanctioned African mission. That deployment has been hampered by a lack of supplies, funds and training.

Diabaly, 220 miles north of the capital, Bamako, had harbored the main cluster of insurgents south of the front-line of Mopti and Sevare.

Douentza, about 500 miles from Bamako along the eastern road to the rebel stronghold of Gao, was a staging post in the rebels' southward advance two weeks ago that prompted France to intervene for fear they would capture the Malian capital. -- Reuters