France on Sunday said airstrikes against rebels in northern Mali were continuing, as Malian government forces backed by French warplanes fought the insurgents for a third day of a joint offensive. "There are continuous (air) raids," French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on the i-Tele channel. "They are going on at the moment, there were some last night and there will be more tomorrow." France launched an aerial campaign against the rebels on Friday to help Mali stop them from advancing south towards the capital Bamako, where hundreds of French troops have deployed, mainly to protect French nationals. Residents said the capital city was calm. The government said 11 soldiers were killed and 60 injured in the battle for the central town, according to a report of DPA. Diarran Kone, a Malian military spokesman, said: "There is calm this morning. The situation is still under control." French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said the airtrikes in "zones of confrontation" were meant to prevent rebel attempts to move southward. The rebels, he said, were dispersed over a vast area in the large West African nation.
