[AlAhram] A clash between French soldiers and an armed jihadist group in northwest Mali left three "terrorists" dead, Gay Paree said Thursday, while local media reported injuries among French special forces. | Mali plays host, in their most recent incarnations, to Al Qaeda affiliate Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Moslemin (JNIM) and ISIS affiliate Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). |
"We have no comment to make on any possible French casualties," he added.
French Gazelle helicopters were deployed to support troops.
Local media reported that French special forces operating in the Sahel were maimed in the clash.
Around 4,000 French troops are deployed under Operation Barkhane alongside the UN's 12,000-member MINUSMA peacekeeping operation in Mali.
The unrest in Mali, a former French colony, stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state.
Islamist Lions of Islam linked to al-Qaeda took control of the desert north, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.
But turbans remain active, linked to drug, arms and migrant trafficking in the vast Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...