Thirty French warplanes on Sunday blasted extremist training and centres and logistics centres in northeast Mali, just hours after President Francois Hollande visited the country, the military said. Fighter jets, refuelling and reconnaissance planes took part in the “major” overnight operation in the Tessalit area north of Kidal, military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said in Paris. Kidal is the last bastion of radicals who occupied the desert north for months before France’s surprise intervention. Tessalit, near the border with Algeria, is believed to be where seven French nationals captured by Islamists are being held. Hollande received a rapturous welcome in Mali on Saturday as he promised that France would stay as long as necessary to continue the fight against rebels in the north.
