BAMAKO - Residents of Goundam near the northern Malian city of Timbuktu on Friday protested against the meting out of strict Islamic justice by jihadists controlling their region, witnesses said.

"It began yesterday (Thursday) when a man accused of adultery was whipped by the Islamists. He denied it and dozens of people protested," said a resident of the town by telephone.

"Today it was a woman who was not veiled who was brutalised. Her baby fell and the population came out to say no to the Islamists."

A nurse in the town's health centre said: "The baby which fell is hovering between life and death."

A municipal worker in the town, which is 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Timbuktu, said the population had surrounded the local mosque to "prevent the Islamists from carrying out their Friday prayers."

Several residents reported the Islamists had fired shots in the air in an attempt to disperse the crowd but did not dissuade the protesters. The Islamists then retreated to the residence of a local official.

Mali's north was occupied by ethnic Tuareg rebels and Al Qaeda-linked Islamists in the wake of a March 22 coup in the capital, Bamako.

The Islamist groups, including Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), have since chased out the secular Tuareg separatists and taken full control, enforcing strict sharia law and destroying ancient World Heritage sites they consider idolatrous.

In Bamako, interim authorities have proved powerless in the face of the occupation, and together with west African mediators are grappling for a solution to win back the territory larger than France.