 Three French soldiers wounded in Mali attack Paris (AFP) Jan 12, 2018 - Three French soldiers deployed in a counter-terrorism force in Mali's restive northeast were injured, one seriously, in a suicide bomb attack, France's army said Friday. The convoy was attacked while travelling between the Menaka and Indelimane regions on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the launch of France's military campaign against jihadists in the west African country. "A vehicle approached the convoy and exploded near a VAB (armoured vehicle)," French army spokesman Patrick Steiger told AFP. The seriously injured soldier was evacuated to France, while the two others were treated at the scene, he said. Three Malian soldiers were also injured on Thursday after being ambushed in the northern town of Hombori in an attack using "improvised explosive devices", Mali's army said in a statement. Also on Thursday, a policeman was abducted and a police station looted and set on fire in the northwest town of Lere, the army said in a separate statement. Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in the French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but large tracts of the country remain lawless. According to an AFP count, 18 French soldiers have been killed in Mali since the launch of Operation Serval, which has since been replaced by Operation Barkhane, a broader offensive deployed in five countries -- Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso. These countries form the so-called G5 Sahel, a French-supported group that last year launched a joint military force to combat jihadism.
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A jihadist group linked to Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on US and French troops in west Africa, in a statement published Friday by Mauritania's ANI news agency.
The group, led by Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui, said it was behind "an attack against an American commando unit in Niger in October."
On October 4, four US and four Niger troops were killed in an ambush at Tongo Tongo, a village close to the Mali border.
That attack had been blamed on the jihadists but it is only now that the group claimed responsibility.
The Islamists also claimed responsibility for an attack in Mali's restive northeast on Thursday in which three French troops were injured, one seriously, in a suicide bomb attack, said the ANI news agency, which closely tracks jihadist groups operating in the Sahel region south of the Sahara.
Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in the French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but large tracts of the country remain lawless.
According to an AFP count, 18 French soldiers have been killed in Mali since the launch of Operation Serval, which has since been replaced by Operation Barkhane, a broader offensive deployed in five countries -- Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.
These countries form the so-called G5 Sahel, a French-supported group that last year launched a joint military force to combat jihadism.
The date of the attack in Mali coincided with the fifth anniversary of the start of the French operation there.
The Islamists group in its statement also claimed responsibility for attacks last year in Burkina Faso.
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