French fighter jets bombed two rebel-held towns in Central African Republic, forcing rebels to pull troops out of one of them after fighting with government forces, officials said.
Rebels withdrew from the northern town of Ouadda after clashes with government troops backed by a small Central African peacekeeping force, said Diego Albator Yao, who is in charge of rebel military operations, by telephone on Thursday from an undisclosed location.
In Paris, French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said French Mirage fighter planes fired on rebel positions in Ouadda and Ndele, another northern town.
He said the French planes intervened at the request of the Central African troops, who met "significant resistance" from rebels in the two towns.
Yao said helicopters had also taken part in the French strike on Ndele, but Prazuck could not confirm the report. Yao said rebels still held the town.
French firepower has put rebels on the run in recent days.
A French military spokesman said earlier this week that French Mirage fighters fired on rebel positions in Birao in support of an army operation there, and Yao confirmed rebel troops pulled out of the town on Tuesday after two days of clashes.
Yao said rebel forces pulled out of Ouadda fearing a French onslaught. Ouadda, however, was not attacked by French forces, he said.
"I asked my men to pull out of Ouadda and leave it to government forces," Yao said. "It is useless to confront them given that the French are intervening with helicopters and jet fighters."
France recently added 100 troops to its 200 soldiers in Central African Republic to aid the government in countering the rebellion and to help secure borders with Chad and Sudan, both wracked by internal conflict.
Central African Republic, a poor country of 3.6 million people in the heart of Africa, has been ravaged by coups and army mutinies since independence from France in 1960. Unrest in Sudan's Darfur, which neighbors the country, has added to instability in both the Central African Republic and Chad.
A small peacekeeping force deployed by the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African states has been in the country for a decade. The 380 troops include soldiers from Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea.
Since late October, rebels have captured a handful of towns in the country's northern tip -- demanding as they progress that the administration meet with them to answer to their charges of corruption, mismanagement and the favoring of some ethnic groups over others.
After pulling out of Birao and Ouadda, insurgents still hold three towns: Ndele, Ouadda-Djalle and Sam Ouandja.
Central African Republic President Francois Bozize seized power after leading a rebel army that seized the capital, Bangui, in 2003.
Bozize toppled former president Ange-Felix Patasse. Bozize went on to win elections in May of last year.
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