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PARIS—Two French troopers had been killed in Mali on Saturday when their car hit a bomb throughout operations below France’s counterterrorism mission in the area.
France has round 5,100 troopers deployed in an space spanning 1000’s of miles from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Chad in the east. Over the previous seven years, the forces have fought branches of Islamic State, al Qaeda and different militant teams, which roam the area’s remoted villages and threaten authorities forces in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and elsewhere.
The troopers killed on Saturday had been conducting operations round Tessalit, a village in northern Mali, as a part of Operation Barkhane, the French navy marketing campaign in opposition to Islamist militants throughout the Sahel area of Africa. France recognized one of many troopers as Arnaud Volpe and the opposite solely by his initials, S.T., on the request of his household.
Their deaths deliver the French loss of life toll in fight operations to 44 troopers throughout the present operation and the brief operation earlier than it that started in 2013, a French navy spokesman mentioned. That contains an accident in November 2019, when two French helicopters collided throughout a mission in northern Mali, killing 13 troopers.
The U.S. navy has offered key help to the French operation, together with drone surveillance and different intelligence assortment actions. In 2017, 4 U.S. troopers primarily based in Niger had been killed by Islamist militants.
Write to Matthew Dalton at [email protected]
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