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| - France's anti-jihadist force has "neutralised" 10 fighters aligned to Al-Qaeda, the operation's chief spokesman said Saturday. The operation began late Friday near N'Tillit village, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the northeastern city of Gao where the French Barkhane force is based, said military spokesman Colonel Frederic Barbry. Two rival jihadist groups, the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), operate in this "area of predation", Barbry added. The Barkhane force was alerted to the presence of the fighters by a drone which attacked them before some 30 mountain commando troops intervened, supported by two Tiger attack helicopters. The operation was wrapped up during the night and the French forces sustained no casualties and took two prisoners. France's armed forces ministry in a statement said that arms, communications systems and 20 motorbikes were also destroyed in the operation. On Monday, the French government said its forces had killed more than 50 jihadists aligned to Al-Qaeda in air strikes in central Mali. Mali has been struggling to contain a brutal jihadist insurgency which first emerged in the north of the country in 2012, overtaking a rebellion by mostly ethnic Tuareg separatists. Former colonial power France launched a military operation to drive back the Islamists in 2013, but fighting has spread to central Mali, and to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands forced to flee their homes. The United Nations has some 13,000 troops deployed in Mali as part of its peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, while France has 5,100 deployed in the Sahel region. Vast swathes of Mali lie outside effective government control. Frustration over the seemingly endless conflict contributed to mass protests against president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita this year, culminating in his ousting in a military coup on August 18. Many analysts argue that engaging in dialogue with jihadists is one of the few escape routes from Mali's cycle of violence, and government leaders in Bamako increasingly view the option favourably. Mali's new interim government, which was appointed to rule for 18 months before staging elections, appears willing to engage in dialogue. In January French President Emmanuel Macron designated the EIGS as the number one enemy in the Sahel region. Since then the GSIM has grown in strength. dla/blb/pvh
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