France denounces 'around 100' killings in Mali

France denounced on Monday what it said was the murder of around 100 people in northern Mali during an offensive by Tuareg rebels, accusing the killers of adopting Al-Qaeda-style tactics. "There was absolutely atrocious and unacceptable violence in Aguelhok. There were summary executions of soldiers, civilians," Development Minister Henri de Raincourt told RFI radio. "There's talk of around 100 who were captured and killed in cold blood," he added, saying the tactic "resembled that used by Al-Qaeda." Raincourt said that some of the victims had their throats slit, while others were shot at close range. "What's important is that the hostilities stop as quickly as possible," he added. The French minister did not say when exactly the massacre took place, but Malian authorities had previous alleged Tuareg rebels working with Al-Qaeda's North African wing had attacked Aguelhok on January 24. At that point, France played down reports of an Al-Qaeda role in the deaths, insisting that the Tuareg rebellion and Al-Qaeda were not the same thing and do not work together. Mali faces an uprising by the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) and other Tuareg rebels -- boosted by the return of men who fought in Libya for Muammar Gadhafi -- demanding greater autonomy for nomadic desert tribes. On Thursday, Mali's army launched airstrikes to halt a rebel advance, and witnesses reported army helicopters were hitting targets in the northeast of the impoverished West African country, a former French colony. A nomadic community of some 1.5 million people, Tuareg of various tribes are scattered between Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Niger and Mali. Mali and Niger experienced uprisings as the Tuareg fought for recognition of their identity and an independent state in the 1960s, 1990s and early 2000s, with a resurgence between 2006 and 2009. Many Tuareg left for Libya where they later fought for Gadhafi's regime, but after his death in October last year they returned, many of them still heavily armed, to their home countries.