French air strikes in Mali have driven back Islamist rebels from a key city and destroyed a militant command centre, the French defence minister said today.

A spokesman for a radical Islamic group in northern Mali has confirmed that a leader of al-Qaida’s North African branch was killed in a car crash.

The UN Security Council threatened sanctions against Islamist fighters in northern Mali and condemned the destruction of heritage sites in the ancient city of Timbuktu in a resolution passed today.

Mali’s Tuareg rebels, who seized control of the country’s north in the chaotic aftermath of a military coup, have declared independence of the Azawad nation.

Rebels who seized control of Mali’s remote north effectively partitioning the country in two have announced a ceasefire, saying they had reached their military goal.