The international counterattack against Islamic militants in Mali ramped up over the weekend, with air strikes by French jets and gunship helicopters and a French-supported air-mobile assault by Malian troops into Islamist-held territory.

"Heavy losses have been inflicted on our adversaries," French president Francois Hollande said.

The attack, reportedly involving hundreds of French and Malian soldiers and airmen, came 10 months after al-Qaida-affiliated militants seized the northern half of the West African nation, including the historic city of Timbuktu, displacing tens of thousands and imposing harsh sharia law.

French transport planes carried Malian soldiers into the northern battle zone while French personnel landed in Bamako, Mali's capital, to reinforce the city's garrison. But most of the action seems to have been in the air, as French warplanes pummeled rebel positions.

The assault opens a new front in the global war against Islamic militants, joining conflicts in Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. American officials say they're considering joining, while French foreign minister Laurent Fabius claimed the U.S. is already involved. "We have the support of the Americans for communications and transport," he told the AP, without giving more detail.

The international aerial campaign over civil war-torn Libya two years ago, of which the French were a key part, managed to be both short and limited in scope. But analysts and policymakers fear an intervention in Mali could incite a wider war. Just last month Ham said that al-Qaida in the Islamic Mahgreb, the terror group's Malian branch, if provoked could ally with Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram and incite a wider war in West Africa.

"The real question is, now what?" Army Gen. Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, told The New York Times in the aftermath of the initial French operation.

“Military intervention may be a necessary component," Ham said. "But if there is to be military intervention it has to be successful; it cannot be done prematurely.”

But ready or not, Paris' hand was reportedly forced when, on Thursday, up to 900 AQIM fighters in 200 vehicles advanced on Konna, a key town in central Mali on the road to the capital Bamako, still under government control.

French forces based in Mali and neighboring Chad and Burkina Faso, all former colonies of France, swiftly responded alongside Malian troops. "French forces brought their support this afternoon to Malian army units to fight against terrorist elements," Hollande said on Thursday.

The operation would "as long as necessary," Hollande added.

French gunship helicopters struck militant forces Konna and nearby Douentza on Thursday and Friday, destroying four rebel vehicles. The copters involved were apparently missile-armed variants of the single-engine Gazelle, an old but rugged design favored by France's garrisons in Africa.

In anticipation of an attack on the Malian rebels, in October the French government had sent the Gazelles to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso – "for more discretion," according to French military expert Jean-Marc Liotier.

French helicopter pilot Damien Boiteux died after being hit by small arms during the initial bombardment.

Late on Friday Chad-based French Mirage 2000D jet fighters, depicted in the official video above, dropped bombs on rebel positions in the city of Gao in northern Mali, targeting the airport and the headquarters of the feared Islamic police. Rafale jets from northern France, presumably supported by in-flight refueling, struck Gao again on Sunday.

Militant spokesman Sanda Ould Boumana downplayed the damage. "Some planes came and bombed some civilians," Boumana told The New York Times. "A woman was killed. It's a well-known scenario. There wasn’t even combat. Planes bombed a mosque. That's it."

But the French and their allies claimed victory. "The Malian army has retaken Konna with the help of our military partners. We are there now," Malian Lt. Col. Diaran Kone told Reuters.

Unnamed "security sources" told CNN that Iyad Ag Ghaly, a top militant, was killed in the Konna battle. Malian officials told The Guardian 11 government troops and more than 100 rebels also died. Human rights groups said 10 civilian were killed.

"The war has only started," Boumama said. "We expect more casualties."

Indeed, no one expects the recent battle alone to resolve the nearly year-old conflict. And the longer the fighting lasts the more likely it is the U.S. will get drawn in.

Great Britain has already pledged transport planes, and some of Mali's West African neighbors have offered to send peacekeepers, which America could end up supporting. "It’s likely that they’ll ask us for some assistance in intelligence," Ham said of the anti-Islamist forces in Mali. "It’s likely they will ask us for some help in logistics, equipping the force."

In the best case, the Malian intervention will be relative quickly and fairly painless for the intervening countries.

In the worst case, this latest shadow could drag on for months or longer.