Posted on 03/17/2013 12:07:48 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A fifth French soldier was killed in the nine-week-old military campaign against Islamist rebels in Mali, the French government said on Sunday.
The corporal from the 1st Marine infantry regiment of Angouleme was killed in action, President Francois Hollande's office said in a statement, without giving details.
Dozens of Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaida have been killed as French and African forces have fought to drive them out of the northern region of Mali they have controlled since last April.
France launched a ground and air operation in January to break the Islamist rebels' hold on the region, saying militants posed a risk to the security of West Africa and Europe.
The offensive has wrested northern Mali from Islamist occupation and killed scores of fighters. Other rebels have retreated into mountain caves and desert hideaways stockpiled with arms and supplies.
The military operation is in its "final, most delicate stage," Hollande's office said.
The United Nations is considering setting up a 10,000-strong force in the former French colony before presidential and legislative elections in July, a deadline a European diplomat described on Tuesday as "a race against time".
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofindia.indiatimes.com ...
Mah mah Mali, goodbye...
Was he a legionnaire?
Where are they trying to drive then to?
Nope. Article says he was a Marine.
My he rest in peace.
I wonder when Marines began to sail on ships. I can recall Thucydides mentioning marines on board Athenian ships during the Peloponnesian War. I am sure they date at least to 500 B.C., and probably longer.
There have been Marines about as long as there have been warships. They were originally (and in some countries still are) referred to as Naval Infantry, and primarily served as boarding and landing party specialists, with their ground combat duties a natural extension of that.
Le Hell Non, Oui won’t Le geaux.
Correct, but not part of the FFL.
Yes - I was attempting to point out that French Marines, unlike their counterparts in the US, are organized as part of the Armee de Terre (the Army), rather than part of the Marine Nationale (the Navy). To confuse matters more, the French Navy also has the Fusiliers Marin (Sailors Riflemen), that are actually infantry and commandos.
Correct again. I was merely addressing the question as to whether or not it was a legionnaire who had been killed, and seeing ‘Marine’ in the article was enough to pretty much verify the KIA was not FFL.
Thanks, there always seems to be overlap in duties. I remember Steve McQueen in “The Sand Pebbles” using a 1903 Springfield yet he was a sailor. Of course that is just a movie.
Another area where there is overlap is Army aviation and Naval aviation. First it was just the Army Air Corps, then probably copying the German Luftwaffe, we have the Air Force but still also have Army aviation.
I also remember during WWII Hermann Goering had Luftwaffe special forces troops.
I wonder what their “exit strategy” is.....
Hope its not withdrawal and turning everything over to the enemy.
;’)
And may al Qaeda rest in pieces.
Vive La France (in spite of the Socialist creep Hollande)
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