The French army announced Monday, December 23, having carried out for the first time Saturday a strike in operation using a Reaper drone, in central Mali, where soldiers of the Barkhane force killed a total of 40 jihadists. President Emmanuel Macron announced on Saturday in Abidjan that 33 "terrorists" had been "neutralized" by the French army in the Mopti region. From sources close to the Elysée Palace, they were killed.
According to a statement issued Monday by the French general staff, "in the day of December 21, continuing the opportunity action launched the previous night against a large group of terrorist fighters, Operation Barkhane neutralized 7 additional terrorists "in the Ouagadou forest, 150 km northwest of Mopti.
"While the commandos engaged in this operation proceeded to search the combat zone, they were attacked by a group of terrorists who infiltrated on motorbikes," explains the staff.
>> Read also: Operation Barkhane: is it possible to withdraw French troops from the Sahel?
First strike by an armed drone
"The shots were fired by a Reaper drone and a Mirage 2000 patrol. This is the first strike in operation by an armed drone," he said, confirming information published by the blog specialized in military questions, Le Mamouth.
The French army announced Thursday that it has completed testing the arming of these remotely piloted devices, of which it has three copies at the Niamey air base, in Niger.
Responsible since 2014 for monitoring armed groups in the Sahel and collecting intelligence, these drones can now drop GBU 12 bombs of 250 kg on identified enemies on the ground, like the fighter planes that crisscross the immense desert area .
A strictly supervised use
The French army will receive next year six additional Reaper, equipped with American Hellfire missiles. The drone fleet should increase to 12 in 2025, then 24 in 2030. Paris thus joins the dozen countries using armed drones outside its borders, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, the Turkey or Iran, according to data from the NGO Drone Wars UK.
The use of this new capacity will be strictly supervised by France, the authorities insist. "The rules of engagement for armed drones are exactly the same as those for fighter planes," said Army Minister Florence Parly on Thursday.
Release of two Malian gendarmes
Before Saturday's operation in central Mali, which enabled the release of two Malian gendarmes held hostage, France had already announced that it had "neutralized" 25 jihadists during two separate operations in the Sahel in December.
This series of operations comes just under a month after the death of 13 French soldiers in a collision between two helicopters during a combat operation in the Liptako, in the Ménaka region, on the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Barkhane regularly carries out attacks against armed groups, including the Islamic State group Grand Sahara (EIGS).
>> Read also: Who are the 13 French soldiers killed in Mali?
With AFP
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