Jean-Yves Le Drian said they had been killed in airstrikes and direct combat with French troops.

 

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said that France may begin pulling out of Mali as early as March.

 

In a newspaper interview, he said that "if everything goes as planned, the number of troops should diminish".

 

France has an estimated 4,000 troops in Mali and officials from multilateral institutions and dozens of countries have been meeting in Brussels to discuss how to replace them.

 

The defence minister said the last major town in northern Mali to remain in the hands of the rebels, Kidal, was now under French control. 

 

Air attacks are continuing on suspected rebel hideouts（隐匿处） north of the town.

 

 

The militants died in French airstrikes on vehicles carrying fighters and materials, or in ground fighting in the town of Konna at the start of the campaign and later in the town of Gao, Mr Le Drian said.

 

He said French troops had inflicted² "great damage on the jihadist terrorist groups", saying "several hundred, a significant number" of Islamist fighters had been killed.

 

To put that in context, at the outset of the offensive French experts suggested that the Islamist alliance could probably muster³（召集） about 3,000 fighters overall, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.

 

France has suffered only one fatality⁴ so far - a helicopter pilot killed at the beginning of the operation.

 

Mr Le Drian said Malian forces had also taken prisoners - "some" high-ranking militants - whom he said would "have to answer to Malian courts and international justice".

 

French forces continue to carry out airstrikes in mountains north of Kidal where Islamists have taken refuge - and where some or all of seven French hostages are being held, our correspondent reports. 

 

Earlier, the French military said some 1,800 soldiers from Chad had entered Kidal. Mr Le Drian said the town was now under the control of French forces with "the support of African and in particular Chadian forces".

 

Meanwhile, pro-autonomy Tuareg rebels in Mali said they had occupied the north-eastern town of Menaka, but their claim could not be verified. 

 

Analysts⁵ say the rebels - who initially⁶ joined forces with the Islamist rebels in their fight for an independent state in northern Mali, but later fell out with them - are seeking to maximise their territorial⁷ claim on the region ahead of talks.

点击收听单词发音