PARIS - In its biggest military funeral in decades, France is honouring 13 soldiers killed when their helicopters collided over Mali while on a mission fighting extremists affiliated with the Islamic State group. French President Emmanuel Macron and Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will preside over the funeral ceremony at the Invalides, a former military hospital that houses Napoleon’s tomb. The 13 coffins, draped in the French tricolour, arrived in France over the weekend. The French military says it was the result of complex co-ordination during a combat operation and has dismissed a claim of responsibility by an IS-linked group. In a surge of violence this month, attackers often linked to IS have killed scores of troops in West Africa’s arid Sahel region.

Source: thestar December 02, 2019 09:11 UTC