French President François Hollande said on Wednesday a military campaign against Islamist rebels in Mali has killed "terrorist leaders", without clarifying whether he was referring to two al Qaeda commanders reported dead last week, while also on Wednesday a French soldier was reported to have been killed in the fighting, reports Reuters.
He added the roughly 4,000 French troops in the West African state as part of the eight-week-old operation would begin withdrawing in April - a month later than planned - as a U.N.-backed African coalition force replaces them.
"We have launched an offensive in two directions, the first in the Ifoghas mountain range, and there we have had successes that will be further confirmed in the coming days, including the killing of terrorist leaders," Hollande told a news conference in Warsaw where he was attending a regional leaders event.
Chad has said its soldiers, fighting alongside the French, have killed two top commanders from al Qaeda's north African wing, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, but Paris has so far said it could not confirm the reports.
The war against Islamist rebels in northern Mali claimed the life of a fourth French soldier on Wednesday.
The sergeant from the 68th African artillery regiment was a liaison agent for around 200 Malian soldiers operating about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the eastern town of Gao, and died after being injured and taken away for treatment.
Around 30 Islamists were also killed in the fighting after Malian soldiers backed by French Mirage jets and helicopters retaliated, French army spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard told reporters.
Scores of Islamist fighters linked to al Qaeda's North African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), have so far been killed as French and African forces fight to drive them out of northern Mali's rugged deserts and mountain ranges, a region they seized last April.
Read more of this report from Reuters.