xi's moments
Home | Europe

France honors 13 soldiers killed in Mali

Xinhua | Updated: 2019-12-03 10:33

People attend a tribute ceremony for the fallen servicemen at the Les Invalides in Paris, France, on Dec 2, 2019. France held the ceremony here on Monday to pay tribute to 13 soldiers who died in a helicopter accident in Mali a week ago. [Photo/Xinhua]

PARIS -- France held a ceremony on Monday at the Les Invalides in Paris to pay tribute to 13 soldiers who died in a helicopter accident in Mali a week ago.

A large crowd and soldiers lined up along Alexandre Bridge III in the French capital, as hearses bearing the flag-draped coffins of the fallen servicemen crossed the city towards Les Invalides.

About 2,500 participants, including 1,000 citizens, government officials, politicians and police officers, were converging to Les Invalides to express their respect and gratitude for the men who "died for France."

On the evening of Nov. 25, two French helicopters -- "Tigre" and "Cougar" -- collided while flying at a very low altitude in the Liptako region, near Burkina Faso borders. Maneuvering at nightfall ahead of engaging with insurgents, the two aircraft crashed at short distance apart, killing the 13 soldiers aboard.

The loss was the country's heaviest casualties in a single operation since 1980s.

In 2013, France launched a military offensive in Mali, one of its former colonies, to help crack down on the Islamist fighters. So far, a total of 38 French soldiers had been killed in Mali, according to reports by state-run France Info.

Mali is a country in West Africa's Sahel region. France has since 2015 deployed around 4,500 troops in the Sahel region to combat extremist insurgents.

Global Edition
BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349