Mali mine blast leaves 3 French troops dead

BAMAKO/PARIS: A mine explosion in Mali has killed three French soldiers, in an unusually deadly incident for French anti-terrorist forces in the region.

One soldier was killed immediately in the blast and French President Francois Hollande 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 to the northern desert town of Tessalit when it hit the mine, according to the French Defense Ministry. The soldiers were moving on a patrol in the restive north of the country.
The latest deaths take the French army casualty toll to 17 since Paris intervened in its former colony in January 2013 to oust militants.
It underlines persistent insecurity in the region a month after Al-Qaeda’s African arm claimed responsibility for an attack on a luxury beach hotel in Ivory Coast in retaliation for French military operations in West Africa.
The Defense Ministry initially reported one death, and President Hollande’s office said that two others had died from wounds.
France has a few thousand forces in its Barkhane mission in multiple countries on the southern edge of the Sahara desert. The mission, created in 2014, stemmed from a French military intervention against extremists in Mali.
The European Union military mission headquarters in Mali’s capital was attacked last month.
The troops were part of Operation Barkhane, under which France has some 3,500 soldiers deployed across five countries in the Sahel region, south of the Sahara desert, to combat the 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 rebels 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 rebel groups in the region.