NOUAKCHOTT: Mauritania’s air force bombarded Sunday positions held by militants of Al-Qaeda’s North African wing in northern Mali, a senior Mauritarian military official told AFP.

“Our army at this moment is pounding the positions of the AQIM terrorists in the north of Mali,” said the official, who was referring to the group known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The action was “in the framework of the fight against bands of terrorists who plague the Saharan-Sahel region, and who threaten the security and stability along Mauritania’s border,” he said.

The official described the action as a “logical continuation” of an offensive started on Friday and continuing Saturday, which also included aircraft, after a convoy of militants was spotted approaching the Mauritanian border from Mali.

The official would not say how many planes took part in Sunday’s attack, or what type they were.

Mauritanian President Mohammad Ould Abdel Aziz was “personally supervising operations” and was due to meet with senior defense staff later on Sunday, a source close to the presidency told AFP.

Six soldiers were killed and eight injured in fighting on Friday and Saturday, while 12 terrorists were also killed, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday in its first official toll.

The offensive follows the abduction on Thursday in northern Niger of a French employee of nuclear group Areva, plus his wife and three other French nationals, by suspected AQIM militants. A Togolese and a Madagascan were also captured.

Mauritania is one of the countries hardest hit by AQIM activities. The North African branch of Osama bin Laden’s terror network operates in a vast desert area across the borders of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

Meanwhile, France refused Sunday to rule out taking military action to free seven hostages, including five French nationals, abducted in Niger last week by suspected Al-Qaeda militants. France says its forces are not involved in the Mauritanian action against AQIM currently taking place. 

“France will do everything to free the hostages,” government spokesman Luc Chatel told Radio J in Paris.

Asked whether that could involve military action, he replied: “I won’t say any more, you must understand why, given the hour at which I’m speaking.”

Chatel said France had received no claim of responsibility nor any ransom demand for the latest abductions.

French officials had said previously that they believed the kidnappers were connected to AQIM and had taken the hostages to Mali.

In July French commandos accompanied Mauritanian troops in a raid on an Al-Qaeda camp in Mali which left seven militants dead but failed to find a previous French hostage who is now known to be have been killed.

The latest batch of hostages was abducted on Thursday from their homes in Arlit in northern Niger by suspected AQIM-linked gunmen, or Tuareg bandits who may have planned to sell them on to the Islamists.

The seven are five French nationals, including a married couple, one Togolese and one Madagascan. All worked for French companies involved in uranium mining in the Arlit region.