NATO countries to strengthen mission in Iraq
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Hashim Sheikh
- . September 27, 2021
- . Update: February 18, 2020 11:26 am
The last French soldier was killed on Friday morning by a barrage of Kalashnikovs in the Gossi region, near the border with Burkina Faso. Maxime Blasco was 34 years old and is the 52nd victim of the Paris war in Mali, which began in 2013 when the then-president François Hollande sent combat helicopters to repel the Islamist offensive towards the capital Bamako. Like most of his fellow soldiers who died in battle at the hands of African jihadists, Blasco was part of a military generation skilled in fighting in the desert sands. So much so that the French press calls the men of Operation Barkhane “children of the Sahel.”
In Mali, France has deployed over five thousand men who carry out almost daily attacks with drones and special forces in a region as large as Europe. By December French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision, the military will have to abandon the bases of Kidal, Tessalit, and Timbuktu, in the north of Mali, and by 2023 the number of French operating in the region will have to reduce by two thousaNATO. “The biggest victims in the fight against IS were made by the residents and security forces of Iraq.”
An important role in reformatting the role of NATO in the Middle East region, obviously, has to play the allied countries of the alliance, especially Jordan. According to Jens Stoltenberg, “Jordan is a very close partner of NATO and a partner in the international coalition to combat IS”, with which there is a constant exchange of information through the special services and during joint special operations.To read more arab politics news.
