Troops from a regional West African force are due to begin deploying within a week, the French prime minister has said. 
 
 Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Tuesday in Paris that the looming deployment meant French forces would not have to bear the burden of fighting in Mali for very long. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "France is today in the vanguard, but within a week African forces will start to deploy on the ground," he said. 
 
 Ayrault's comments come as President Francois Hollande said France will end its intervention in Mali only when stability has returned to the West African country. 
 
 "We have one goal. To ensure that when we leave, when we end our intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and there are no more terrorists threatening its territory," Hollande said in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. 
 
 His comments raise the prospects of a costly, drawn-out operation against the al-Qaeda-linked rebels in northern Mali. 
 
 France has deployed 750 soldiers to the country and defence sources said it planned to boost its presence to a total of 2,500 troops. 
 
 The United States is still assessing what military aid to give France, but has no plans to send US troops, defence secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday. 
 
 "There is no consideration of putting any American boots on the ground at this time," Panetta told a news conference in Lisbon. 
 
 Deployment details 
 
 West African army chiefs meanwhile met on Tuesday in Bamako to plan the roll-out of a UN-mandated, 3,300-strong regional intervention force in the former French colony. They plan to continue their talks on Wednesday. 
 
 "We are here today to speak about the engagement alongside our Malian brothers in arms, to liberate the north of Mali," Ivory Coast army chief General Soumaila Bakayoko said at the talks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow, reporting from the capital, Bamako, said the military chiefs of the West African bloc of nations, ECOWAS, were still meeting over the details of the deployment. 
 
 "What we are hearing is that the military chiefs [of ECOWAS] are deliberating over the different aspects of this deployment," he said. 
 
 "What they have announced is that the chief of the mission will be from Nigeria, and will lead around 3,300 troops. 
 
 
 
 "The forces will be supporting the French troops ... but they will have to be trained first before they go to the north, because they have previously worked as peacekeepers." 
 
 French warplanes have been hitting targets in various parts of Mali since Friday in support of Malian forces seeking to dislodge the rebels who last year seized control of its vast desert north and had advanced south. 
 
 Strongholds abandoned 
 
 The rebels have abandoned several key strongholds under the French onslaught. 
 
 
 
 "We brought a halt to the [rebel] offensive," Ayrault said, though he warned that the rebels' "determination remains intact". 
 
 
 
 France's National Assembly and senate on Tuesday each held a minute of silence in memory of a French helicopter pilot killed on Friday in Mali and another soldier killed Saturday in a failed attempt to rescue a French hostage held by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab in Somalia. 
 
 
 
 At a military memorial service for the pilot, 41-year-old Damien Boiteux, at the Les Invalides military monument, Ayrault praised his "exceptional courage" and said he had "died for France". 
 
 
 
 "We pay homage to your commitment, that of a life devoted to the defence of our country. This commitment led to the ultimate sacrifice. It will not be forgotten," Ayrault said. ||||| Islamist militants from Mali attacked a natural gas field partly operated by BP in southern Algeria early on Wednesday, killing a security guard, according to local media, and kidnapping at least eight people, including English, Norwegian, and Japanese nationals, an Algerian security official said. 
 
 Seven others were wounded in the attack, including two foreigners, added the state news agency. Ireland has announced that one of the hostages has Irish nationality. 
 
 Algerian forces caught up with and surrounded the kidnappers and negotiations for the release of the hostages are ongoing, the Algerian official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. 
 
 Attacks on oil-rich Algeria's hydrocarbon facilities are very rare, despite decades of fighting an Islamist insurgency, mostly in the north of the country. 
 
 In the last several years, however, al-Qaida's influence in the poorly patrolled desert wastes of southern Algeria and northern Mali and Niger has grown and it operates smuggling and kidnapping networks throughout the area. 
 
 The attack in Algeria comes as French troops are trying to take back northern Mali from the militants. A rebellion that has seized control of northern Mali includes groups with close ties to al-Qaida and already holds seven French hostages as well as four Algerian diplomats. 
 
 The Ain Amenas natural gas field where the attack occurred, however, is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Mali border, though it is just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Libya's deserts. 
 
 The British Foreign Office confirmed "a terrorist incident is ongoing" near the facility in Ain Amenas, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the capital in Algeria's vast desert south. It could not confirm if any British nationals were involved in the incident. 
 
 BP, together with Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian state oil company, Sonatrach, operate the gas field. A Japanese company, JGC Corp, provides services for the facility as well. 
 
 Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says kidnapped foreigners include Japanese employees of JGC. 
 
 "We have withheld information earlier but we are certain that JGC is the one affected," Suga said, adding that the government is now negotiating with local officials through diplomatic channels, asking for safety first to protect the lives of the Japanese nationals. 
 
 Statoil said that it has 20 employees in the facility. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm that a Norwegian citizen has been abducted. 
 
 Algeria had long warned against military intervention against the rebels in northern Mali, fearing the violence could spill over its own long and porous border. 
 
 _____ 
 
 Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report from Tokyo. ||||| French troops pressed northward in Mali toward territory occupied by radical Islamists on Wednesday, military officials said, announcing the start of a land assault that will put soldiers in direct combat "within hours." 
 
 In this picture dated Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 and released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) a French soldier of the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment based in Le Mans, western France,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Young men play football in Bamako, Mali, Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013. French forces led an all-night aerial bombing campaign Tuesday to wrest control of a small Malian town from armed Islamist extremists who... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this picture dated Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 and released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) shows French legionnaires of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment based in Orange, southern... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this picture dated Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 and released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD), a French soldier of the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment based in Le Mans, western France,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this picture dated Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 and released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) French soldiers of the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment based in Frejus, southern France,... (Associated Press) 
 
 French troops in two armored personnel carriers drive through Mali's capital Bamako on the road to Mopti Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013. French forces led an all-night aerial bombing campaign Tuesday to wrest... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this picture dated Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 and released by the French Army Communications Audiovisual office (ECPAD) s French soldiers of the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment based in Le Mans, western France,... (Associated Press) 
 
 French ground operations began overnight in Mali, Adm. Edouard Guillaud, the French military chief of staff, said on Europe 1 television. France's Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on RTL radio that soldiers were headed away from the relative safety of the capital toward the rebel strongholds in the north. 
 
 Residents of Niono, a city in the center of Mali which is just south of a town that was overrun by the jihadists earlier this week, said they saw trucks of French soldiers arrive overnight. The natural target for the French infantry is Diabaly, located 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of the capital and roughly 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Niono. French warplanes have carried out airstrikes on Diabaly since the weekend, when a column of dozens of rebel vehicles cut off the road out of Diabaly and seized the town as well as its military camp. 
 
 Ibrahim Komnotogo, a resident of Diabaly who heads a USAID-financed rice agriculture project, happened to be outside the town when the jihadists encircled it. He has 20 employees and contractors who he says are stuck inside the town, which has a population of 35,000. He told The Associated Press that al-Qaida-linked rebels have sealed off the roads and are preventing people from leaving. 
 
 Komnotogo says he fears the Islamists are planning to hide within the mud-walled neighborhoods and use the population as a human shield. 
 
 "The jihadists have split up. They don't move around in big groups ... they are out in the streets, in fours, and fives and sixes, and they are living inside the most inhabited neighborhoods," he said, explaining that they had taken over the homes of people who managed to flee before the road was cut off. 
 
 French warplanes bombarded the military camp, but there have been no airstrikes inside the actual town, which begins at the eastern wall of the garrison. Residents have evacuated the neighborhood called Bordeaux, after its sister city in France, which is only 500 meters (yards) from the camp, he said. They have moved mostly into a quarter called Berlin, about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the military installation. 
 
 "They are preventing the population from leaving. We have been trying to get our employees out, but they can't leave," said Komnotogo. "They have parked their pickup trucks inside the courtyards of empty homes. They have beards. And they wear boubous (a flowing robe). No one approaches them. Everyone is afraid," he said. 
 
 French President Francois Hollande authorized the airstrikes last Friday after the Islamists began a push southward toward the capital from the northern half of Mali that they control. They seized the Afghanistan-sized north last April in the chaos following a coup in Mali's normally-stable capital. 
 
 Five days of airstrikes have done little to erode the Islamist gains in Mali, which some in the West fear could turn the region into a launching pad for terrorist attacks. The bombardments began in the town of Konna, which the rebels occupied last Thursday. After initially saying they had stopped the rebel advance, Le Drian on Tuesday acknowledged that Konna was still in the hands of the rebels. 
 
 Sahara Media, a Mauritanian-based website that the jihadists use to post videos and messages, published a video allegedly from Ansar Dine fighters in Konna, posing with the city's sign. 
 
 A member from the rebel group, one of three extremist organizations operating in north Mali, identified as Abou El Habib Sidi Mohamed, a member of Ansar Dine's communications team, said: "Thank you to God, who encourages jihad and the application of Sharia on this Earth, for we are now standing in the town of Konna, on this day, Jan. 14, 2013." 
 
 The seizure of Diabaly brings the Islamists to only 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the capital. Konna, the closest point where they were known to be before, is 680 kilometers (425 miles) away. 
 
 The ground assault reverses France's earlier insistence that it would provide only air and logistical support for a military intervention, which would be led by African troops. "Now we're on the ground," Guillaud said. "We will be in direct combat within hours." 
 
 On Tuesday, France announced it tripling the number of troops deployed to Mali from 800 to 2,500. The offensive was to have been led by thousands of African troops pledged by Mali's neighbors, but they have yet to arrive, leaving France alone to lead the operation. 
 
 Guillaud said the militant groups have a history of taking human shields and France would do its utmost to make sure civilians are not wrongly targeted. "When in doubt, we will not fire," he said. 
 
 A resident of Niono said that some residents of the besieged town had managed to slip through the rebel noose. They were arriving on foot, said Mamadou Haidara, 
 
 ___ 
 
 Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writer Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed to this report. ||||| Germany is sending two military aircraft to help transport African troops who will aid in the international effort to drive back al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Mali. 
 
 Defense Ministry Thomas de Maiziere says the two C-160 planes will depart once technical details have been resolved. 
 
 De Maiziere told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that they would be used to take forces from the 15-nation in West African regional group known as ECOWAS to Mali's capital Bamako. 
 
 Germany will also be providing (EURO)1 million ($1.3 million) for humanitarian aid in Mali where fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people. 
 
 Germany has been reluctant to be drawn into the conflict even as its close ally France is mounting a major military effort to back Mali's government against the rebel onslaught.
– France has launched a ground operation in Mali, and its troops should be in direct combat with radical Islamists "within hours," military officials tell the AP. The incursion began overnight, with troops pressing from the capital into rebel-held northern territory. France also announced yesterday that it was boosting its troop presence from 800 to 2,500, another sign that it's leading an offensive that was originally to be led by Mali's African neighbors. West African troops are set to arrive within a week, France's prime minister said yesterday. "France is in the vanguard, but within a week African forces will start to deploy on the ground," he said, according to al-Jazeera. Germany is providing military aircraft to transport those African troops, along with $1.3 million in humanitarian aid. The US has offered to help as well, though Leon Panetta said it won't send troops—direct military aid to Mali's coup-installed government is illegal, the Washington Post points out. The militants, meanwhile, have actually seized more territory despite the assault, with their fighters embedding themselves in the civilian population, a French military spokesman said. Today they also attacked a BP natural gas field in neighboring Algeria, kidnapping eight people.