French special forces intervened at an army base in the west African country of Niger after Islamists staged a car bombing and then attacked the base, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday. "The situation has stabilised as we speak, especially in Agadez, where our special forces intervened to back the Niger forces," he said on France's BFMTV. A defence ministry source said two "terrorists" had been killed in the French offensive, which took place at dawn on Friday.

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday vowed to help Niger "destroy" the militants who launched deadly attacks against a military base and a French-run uranium mine in the west African country. Hollande, speaking to AFP in Germany, said France would support "all the efforts of Niger to stop the hostage situation" in the town of Agadez, where the military base is. He said that France would not tolerate such aggression. "We will not intervene in Niger as we did in Mali, but we have the same willingness to cooperate to fight against terrorism," he said.

Islamist militants staged twin suicide car bombings on an army base and a French-run uranium mine in Niger on Thursday, killing at least 20 people and taking several trainee officers hostage in the impoverished west African state. An Islamist group claimed the attacks as revenge against the country's involvement in France's offensive against militants in neighbouring Mali. They come just four months after Al-Qaeda linked militants seized a desert gas plant in neighbouring Algeria in a siege that left 38 hostages dead, also in retaliation against the intervention in Mali.

Mali's main Tuareg separatist group said Wednesday it supported the holding of a nationwide presidential poll in July but ruled out allowing the army in its northern bastion of Kidal for the vote. A delegation from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) held talks in Ouagadougou, the capital of neighbouring Burkina Faso, with the region's lead mediator in the Malian crisis, Djibrill Bassole.