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| Africa North |
| Three French Soldiers Die in Mali Mine Blast |
| 2016-04-14 |
| [AnNahar] Three French peacekeeping soldiers died after their armored car ran over a landmine in Mali, the French presidency said Wednesday. One soldier was killed immediately in the blast on Tuesday and President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... learned "with great sadness" that two more soldiers had died in the west African country, a statement said. The car was leading a convoy of around 60 vehicles travelling to the northern desert town of Tessalit when it hit the mine, according to the French defense ministry. The troops were part of Operation Barkhane, under which La Belle France has some 3,500 soldiers deployed across five countries in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... , south of the Sahara desert, to combat the jihadist insurgency raging there. The latest deaths bring to seven the number of French soldiers killed in combat in the operation, according to defense ministry figures. Ten French soldiers were killed in an earlier military intervention launched in January 2013 to oust Salafist tough guys who had taken over vast stretches of northern Mali in the chaos following a coup. Countries across west Africa are scrambling to tighten security following a string of attacks against hotels and restaurants popular with foreigners that have highlighted the growing reach of jihadist groups in the region. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |