French warplanes hit Islamist positions in Douentza, 800 kilometres north of the capital, residents reported on Monday, after bombing munitions and fuel stockpiles as well as bases in the key cities of Gao and Kidal over the weekend.

Residents of Douentza said Monday’s air strikes had destroyed the headquarters of the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), who had fled their positions by the time the French struck.

‘‘ It was destroyed but the Islamists were not there,’’ said one resident.

After clashes with Malian soldiers, the Islamist rebels on Monday seized the town of Diabaly, some 400 kilometres north of the capital Bamako.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed the Islamist victory in a town that lies on the road leading directly to the capital.

Mr Le Drian told journalists that while the Islamists had ‘‘retreated’’ in the east of Mali, French forces were facing a ‘‘difficult’’ situation in the west, where he said the rebels are well-armed.

The setback came as Islamists in Somalia announced that  a French soldier wounded and captured during a failed hostage rescue raid had died and published pictures of the purported commando chief’s body on Twitter.

‘‘Francois Hollande . . . was it worth it?’’ read a caption addressed to France’s president on one photo in which the dead man is seen with bullet magazines and an assortment of guns and other tools of war strewn around and on top of him.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius hailed the ‘‘quasi-unanimous’’ backing from the international community for its action in Mali, which his Malian counterpart said was aimed at decisively driving out the Islamists.

‘‘We cannot simply push them back; we have to chase them away,’’ Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly said after meeting Mr Fabius.

France launched the offensive alongside the Malian army on Friday after months of torpor over a planned African military intervention, which experts had said could only get off the ground in September.

Media reports have said France is deploying about 500 troops in Mali. The soldiers have been sent from France’s African bases in Chad and Ivory Coast as well as Paris.

A leader of MUJAO vowed revenge against France, which has stepped up security on home soil in fear of reprisal attacks.

‘‘France has attacked Islam. We will strike at the heart of France,’’ said a man calling himself Abu Dardar.

France’s intervention has been backed by the European Union, NATO and the United States, while Britain is providing logistical support in the form of transport planes and Germany is weighing the provision of logistical, medical or humanitarian aid.

Canada will also send a military transport aircraft to assist in the transport of equipment, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.

AFP