… As Saudi-led coalition launches airstrike on Yemen’s Houthi militia***
Malian transition President Ba N’Daou has expressed his condolences to the French nation and his counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, over the death of three soldiers killed during an operation against terrorists in Mali.
The incident occurred on Monday morning when an improvised explosive device hit an armored vehicle carrying three French soldiers.
The soldiers were engaged in a military operation to fight radicals in the Hombori region in southern Mali.
According to the French Defense Ministry, the area was marked by terrorist violence towards civilians.
“I bow to the memory of these young people who have fallen as heroes.
“On this painful occasion, on my personal behalf and behalf of the Malian people, I would like to extend my most emotional condolences to the families of the deceased.
“To their brothers in arms, to the president of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron and the French people,” N’Daou said in a statement.
He also expressed gratitude to France over its military engagement in Mali to curb the Islamist threat.
Paris has initiated a 5,000-strong anti-terrorism initiative called Operation Barkhane targeting jihadist groups across the Sahel region in 2014.
Also read: Militants attack U.S.-NATO base in Afghanistan
France leads the operation alongside its five former colonies located in West Africa – namely, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Niger, and Burkina Faso – nations under particularly high terrorist threat.
In another development, Yemen’s Houthi militia said on Tuesday that the Saudi-led coalition launched an airstrike on Houthi military site in the capital Sanaa.
The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Tuesday morning that the airstrike occurred around the al-Kasarat in Hamdan district in western Sanaa.
It added that residents across Sanaa heard a powerful explosion.
The coalition has made no comment yet.
The Houthis have recently intensified cross-border drone and missile attacks on Saudi cities.
All Houthi attacks had been intercepted, according to the coalition’s statements.
Yemen has been mired in civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of several northern provinces.
This had forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in 2015 to support Hadi’s government. (Xinhua
– Sputnik with additional reports from Xinhua
