A French soldier was killed on Tuesday in a clash with jihadists in northern Mali where the French are in the midst of a critical operation, President Francois Hollande announced, reports France 24.
A Defense Ministry statement said that nearly 20 extremists have been killed in the ongoing fighting.
The death of the French Foreign Legionnaire brings to two the number of French killed since France, Mali’s one-time colonial ruler, launched a military intervention on Jan. 11 to push out militants who had taken over the African country’s vast north.
A helicopter pilot was killed on the first day of the intervention.
The operation in a mountainous region where extremists are holed up is in its “last phase,” the president said.
Read more of this report from France 24.