BAMAKO, Mali — French soldiers are battling Islamist militants in direct clashes on the ground in central Mali, Malian and Western officials said on Wednesday, acknowledging for the first time that France’s campaign against the militants who have seized much of the nation has involved more than just airstrikes.

France had said that its ground forces had stayed out of the fighting so far, limiting its intervention in Mali to aerial assaults at the front lines and bombing runs on extremist strongholds deeper into the Islamist-held north.