Mali's army carried out airstrikes overnight on the northern city of Kidal, which has been under the control of Tuareg separatists and their jihadist allies since a large-scale offensive last month, the military and witnesses said on Thursday.
"We are targeting specific targets. We have our strategy. In the coming days, the attacks will intensify," an officer at the army's official command post in the central city of Mopti told AFP.
At least four airstrikes were carried out overnight and caused damage, said a witness in Kidal, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A house near an old market was destroyed and another airstrike left a crater inside the large courtyard of the governor's office in Kidal, the witness said.
The strategic city in Mali's desert north was unusually quiet early Thursday with little traffic on the roads, the witness added.
The deadly offensive coordinated by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists and Tuareg separatists on April 25 and 26 targeted strategic cities and killed the country's influential defense minister.
Under an alliance formed a year ago, Tuareg rebels of the Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA) joined forces with the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist Group in Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) to launch the attacks.
Kidal and other towns and villages in the north were captured and are now controlled by the FLA and jihadists, who have since imposed a blockade on the capital, Bamako.
A historically nomadic people, the Tuareg, who are scattered across Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, have waged an armed struggle for decades against marginalization, with actions particularly focused around Kidal.
