Mali: Targeted assault kills two French troopers

Two French troopers had been killed in northwestern Mali when their automobile hit an improvised explosive gadget on Saturday, in line with the French presidency. An analogous assault on French troops primarily based in Mali killed three troops simply days earlier.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed grief over the deaths of Sergeant Yvonne Huynh and Brigadier Loic Risser within the Menaka area, his workplace stated in a press release. Another soldier was wounded within the blast, it added.

Huynh, 33, was the primary feminine soldier despatched to the Sahel area because the French operation towards Islamists started there in 2013.
Both Huynh and Risser had been members of a regiment specializing in intelligence work.
“Their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device during an intelligence mission,” the French presidency stated of Saturday’s incident.
Battle towards jihadis
Around 5,100 French troops are stationed throughout the Sahel area and have been combating jihadi teams alongside troopers from Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, who collectively make up the G5 Sahel group.
The al-Qaida-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) had claimed duty for an earlier assault that killed three French troopers in central Mali.
The group, the principle jihadist alliance within the Sahel, says the principle causes for its continued assaults on French troops is France’s army presence within the area in addition to the publication of Prophet Mohammad’s by a French newspaper and Macron’s protection of them within the identify of freedom of expression.

President Macron has affirmed France’s willpower to proceed its position in “the battle against terrorism.”
Last month, France stated its forces killed Bah ag Moussa, a frontrunner of al-Qaida’s North Africa wing, throughout an operation in northeastern Mali.
In November, French forces killed 50 terrorists linked to al-Qaida central Mali.