{"id":78740,"date":"2018-04-06T12:02:09","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T16:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=78740"},"modified":"2018-04-06T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T16:02:09","slug":"french-forces-confirm-joint-operation-against-islamic-state-loyal-militants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=78740","title":{"rendered":"French forces confirm joint operation against Islamic State-loyal militants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"French<\/p>\n

Caleb Weiss over at The Long War Journal<\/a> reports the French military confirmed its forces took part in a large-scale joint operation in early April against Islamic State-loyal militants in northern Mali, close to the border with Niger.<\/p>\n

A French military spokesman said that \u201cFrench commandos and Malian forces began a \u2018reconnaissance and control operation\u2019 in the Akabar region\u201d on March 28, \u201cworking in liaison with the Nigerien army and a local self-defense group.\u201d The combined forces came into contact with militants from the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) on April 1. The following gunfight left at least 30 jihadists dead, according to the French spokesman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not the first time French special forces have conducted joint operations with the Tuareg groups against ISGS militants. In February, they first clashed with the jihadists in a renewed offensive. It was later reported that French special operations troops coordinated with the Tuaregs in the battle.<\/p>\n

The Islamic State-loyal forces, led by Abu Walid al Sahrawi, are referred to as \u201cIslamic State in the Greater Sahara\u201d (ISGS), and have been linked to several attacks in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Say what you will about the French political leadership; their SPECOPS teams are first rate, and 30 dead jihadists is a good day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caleb Weiss over at The Long War Journal reports the French military confirmed its forces took … French forces confirm joint operation against Islamic State-loyal militants<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}