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Reuters
BAMAKO (Reuters) - Nomadic Tuareg rebels backed by former soldiers from Libya stepped up attacks on towns in northern Mali on Wednesday, stoking fears that last year's war to oust Muammar Gaddafi could further destabilise the region.

Up to 500 armed Tuaregs who fought for Gaddafi in Libya sought refuge in Mali late last year as his regime crumbled, raising concerns that their presence would reignite separatist uprisings in the Sarahan desert.

Fighters launched attacks around the northern towns of Aguelhok and Tessalit up by the border with Algeria early on Wednesday, a day after rebels tried to seize the town of Menaka, prompting fierce clashes with Malian government forces who used combat helicopters to push them back.

"The group that attacked Menaka split into two, with some of them heading to Aguelhok. There have been clashes between them and the army with heavy weapons since 4.00 a.m. this morning," said one military official by telephone.

The official said the other group of rebels headed further north towards the town of Tessalit but had been intercepted on the way and that fighting continued there too.

At least one Malian soldier and several assailants were killed on Tuesday in the fighting around Menaka before the rebels were repelled by the army, the government said.

The Defence Ministry said on Tuesday former Libyan soldiers and Tuareg rebels under the name the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) were behind the Menaka assault.

Northern Mali, a remote desert zone 1,000 km (630 miles) up the winding Niger river from the capital Bamako, has a long history of uprisings by nomadic rebels who pay scant attention to state boundaries with Niger, Algeria and Libya.

Gaddafi encouraged their aspirations to an independent Saharan identity, both fostering and then helping to quash their rebellions. Their last uprising formally ended with a peace deal with the Mali government in 2009.

Mali security sources said last year some of the pro-Gaddafi fighters had set up base 40 km (25 miles) outside the northern town of Kidal, equipped with weapons and 50 off-road vehicles.

Mali's neighbours and partners including the United States and the European Union fear the consequences of a lawless no-go area in Mali's north, already home to allies of al Qaeda behind a spate of kidnappings of Westerners across the Sahel region.

France and the United States both signalled they would offer military support to Mali while the EU promised 63 million euros in aid to Bamako in November, mostly aimed at shoring up security in the northern desert.

Mali has in recent days amassed forces in the region to combat the threat, but the army official said it had called for reinforcements after defections to the rebel side by ethnic Tuareg camel-mounted soldiers at army bases in Kidal and Menaka.

The insecurity has devastated the desert tourism industry in a country which otherwise relies on revenues from its cotton and goldmining industries.