A French armored vehicle in March 2019 drove near Hombori, a small town in the central province of Mopti, Mali, where soldiers killed on Monday were operating.
Photo:
daphne benoit / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
PARIS: Three French soldiers were killed Monday in Mali when their vehicle collided with a bomb during operations of the French counterterrorism mission in the West African nation, the French government said.
France has more than 5,000 troops deployed in an area spanning thousands of miles from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Chad in the east. For the past seven years, forces have been fighting branches of the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups, which are roaming isolated villages in the region and threatening government forces in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and elsewhere.
Soldiers killed Monday were carrying out operations around Hombori, a small town in the central province of Mopti in Mali, as part of the French Army’s Operation Barkhane campaign against Islamist militants in the African region. of the Sahel, authorities reported. They identified soldiers as Tanerii Mauri, Dorian Issakhanian and Quentin Pauchet. The three soldiers were from a military regiment based in the town of Thierville-sur-Meuse in eastern France, they said.
Their deaths have killed at least 47 French soldiers during the current operation and the short operation before it, which began in 2013. This includes an accident in November 2019, when two French helicopters crashed during a mission north of Mali, and killed 13 soldiers.
The U.S. military has provided key support to the French operation, including drone surveillance and other intelligence gathering activities. In 2017, Islamist militants killed four American soldiers based in Niger.
Write to Noemie Bisserbe to [email protected]
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