Confusion over airstrike in Mali
AFP, BAMAKO
France on Tuesday said that it had killed dozens of militants in a weekend airstrike in central Mali, while several villagers and a local group said up to 20 wedding guests were killed by fire from a helicopter.
Social media has been buzzing since Sunday with rumors about events in Bounti, and villagers there said that a wedding party was attacked by an unidentified helicopter.
Separately, French military headquarters said that fighter jets had neutralized dozens of militants in central Mali after the group had been tracked for several days.
Troops of the 1er Regiment de Chasseurs stand by the coffins of three French soldiers who were killed in Mali serving in the Barkhane force during a tribute ceremony in Thierville-sur-Meuse, France, on Tuesday.
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French Defence Minister Florence Parly speaks during a ceremony at Thierville-sur-Meuse, eastern France on January 5, 2021, held to commemorate three French soldiers who were killed in Mali serving in the country’s ‘Barkhane force’. – Three French soldiers were killed on December 28, 2020, in Mali when their armoured vehicle struck an explosive device in the Hombori region in the centre of the poor Sahel state, the French presidency said. (Photo by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN / AFP)
Controversy has erupted over an attack on Sunday on a village in central Mali, located in an area where the French armed forces say they carried out an airstrike on jihadists the same day.
Bombing kills 3 French soldiers in Mali aa.com.tr - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aa.com.tr Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bombing in Mali kills 3 French soldiers Tue 29th December 2020 | 05:20 PM
PARIS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Dec, 2020 ) :Three French soldiers were killed in eastern Mali as their armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED), the French presidency said on Tuesday.
The incident took place when Brigadier-Chief Tanerii Mauri, Fighters 1st Class Dorian Issakhanian and Quentin Pauchet from the first regiment of hunters of Thierville-sur-Meuse were on an escort mission between Hombori and Gossi, near the border with Niger and Burkina Faso. Despite the immediate intervention of the medical team present in the convoy and the care provided, the three soldiers could not be revived, a statement from the Defense Ministry said.
Three French Soldiers Killed in Mali During Counterterrorism Mission
Deaths bring France’s military fatalities to at least 47 during operations against regional militant groups since 2013
A French armored vehicle in March 2019 drove near Hombori, a small town in Mali’s central Mopti province where the soldiers killed Monday were operating. Photo: daphné benoit/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images By Dec. 28, 2020 4:09 pm ET
PARIS Three French soldiers were killed in Mali on Monday when their vehicle hit a bomb during operations under France’s counterterrorism mission in the West African nation, the French government said.
France has more than 5,000 soldiers deployed in an area spanning thousands of miles from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Chad in the east. Over the past seven years, the forces have fought branches of Islamic State, al Qaeda and other militant groups, which roam the region’s isolated villages and threaten go