France has withdrawn its first batch of soldiers from Mali, the army said Tuesday, as it begins to pull out troops sent to battle Islamist fighters in the west African nation. The military's chief of staff said around 100 soldiers had been withdrawn and sent to Paphos in Cyprus, where they will spend three days in a hotel before heading back to France. They belonged to parachute units of the army that had been deployed in the Tessalit region of northeast Mali, where violent fighting against Islamists took place, said Thierry Burkhard, chief of staff spokesman.

A French force of 1,000 soldiers was Monday sweeping a valley thought to be a logistics base for Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists near the Malian city of Gao, an AFP journalist accompanying the mission said. Operation Gustav, one of France's largest actions since its intervention in its former colony, involves dozens of tanks, helicopters and aircraft, said General Bernard Barrera, commander of the French land forces in Mali.

French and Malian troops battled Islamist fighters in the city of Timbuktu in day-long clashes Sunday that left three jihadists and one Malian soldier dead, military sources said. The Islamists began their assault with a suicide bomb attack on an army checkpoint late Saturday on the edge of the fabled Saharan city that left a Malian soldier wounded. Militants then infiltrated the city, which French and Malian soldiers recaptured from Islamist rebels in January.

Malian troops backed by French forces on Sunday clashed with Islamist fighters who had infiltrated the northern city of Timbuktu, leaving two jihadists dead and four Malian soldiers wounded, an army officer said. "Jihadists have infiltrated the centre of Timbuktu... Our men are currently fighting them with the support of a unit of our French partners," the Malian officer told AFP by telephone. "Two jihadists have been killed and four Malian soldiers have been injured. That's the provisional toll," the officer said, adding the fighting "is not yet over".