AMAKO (Mali), Jan 11: French forces arrived on Friday to help Malian soldiers fight against radical Islamists, drawing the former colonial power into a military operation to oust the Al Qaeda-linked militants nine months after they seized control of northern Mali.    

The arrival of the French dramatically ups the stakes in a conflict taking place in a swath of lawless desert where terrorism and kidnapping have flourished.    It also comes as the Islamists advance ever closer toward the most northern city still under government control and after they fought the Malian military for the first time in months.

French President Francois Hollande said on Friday that the operation would last “as long as necessary” and said it was aimed notably at protecting the 6,000 French citizens in Mali. Kidnappers currently hold seven French hostages in the country. “French army forces supported Malian units this afternoon to fight against terrorist elements,” he said.

Hollande's announcement comes after residents in central Mali said they had seen Western military personnel arriving in the area, and that planes had landed at a nearby airport throughout the night.

Col Abdrahmane Baby, a military operations adviser for the foreign affairs ministry, also confirmed in the Malian capital of Bamako that French troops had arrived in the country. He gave no details about how many were there or what they specifically were doing.

“They are here to assist the Malian army,” he told reporters in the capital of Bamako. France has led a diplomatic push for international action in northern Mali but efforts to get an African-led force together, or to train the weak Malian army, have dragged.

The French quickly mobilised after the Islamists seized a key town on Thursday, pushing closer to the army's major base in central Mali.

The United Nations Security Council has condemned the capture of Konna and called on UN member states to provide assistance to Mali “in order to reduce the threat posed by terrorist organisations and associated groups.'”    France's position has been complicated because for months, Hollande has said France would not send ground forces into Mali.

France is sticking to those plans, according to a top French diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.—AP