French army kills 11 militants in Mali anti-terror operation

BAMAKO: A French counter-terrorism offensive in rebel-infested northern Mali ended on Friday with 11 militants killed and a French soldier wounded, military sources inside the operation told. The action came as Paris steps up its campaign against armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda holed up in Mali´s vast desert, following the former French colony´s recent return to democratic government after a coup which plunged the country into chaos. "The French military operation in the Timbuktu region is completed. Eleven terrorists were killed. A French soldier was wounded but his life is not in danger," said an official from France´s Operation Serval military mission in its former colony. A foreign source told on Thursday troops were targeting the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), the Signatories in Blood -- an armed unit founded by fugitive jihadist commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar -- and fighters loyal to slain warlord Abdelhamid Abou Zeid. A Malian military source confirmed the information, saying "the French have done a good job, because the jihadists, notably from Libya, are reorganising to occupy the region and dig in permanently". The sources said military equipment and phones belonging to Islamist militants were seized by French troops. The French operation took place a few hundred kilometres (miles) north of the desert caravan town of Timbuktu, according to a Malian security source. Two explosions were reported late Friday in Kidal, some 300 miles northeast of Timbuktu, an African military source and a local official said.