French military says airstrikes kill 15 extremists in Mali

DAKAR, Senegal – The French military says it has carried out airstrikes in central Mali that killed some 15 members of an unnamed extremist group that had been preparing an attack.

A statement on Saturday says the airstrikes were carried out on Jan. 10 in co-ordination with the West African nation’s armed forces. The statement says the extremists had been planning an attack on a “symbolic institution” in the Dialoube region.

Mali is under threat from a number of extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization. Suspicions about alleged support for extremism have led to a growing number of deadly clashes among communities in the country’s central region.

France’s 4,500-strong Barkhane counterterror force in West Africa is the country’s largest overseas military operation.