France's armed forces said Monday it had carried out a drone strike for the first time, during operations in Mali at the weekend in which it said 40 "terrorists" were killed.
![French army carries out first-ever drone strike during Mali op](http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/f7178544605de797b8db8c304f15930675cd3dc2.jpg)
On Saturday, French President
Emmanuel Macron had announced that French forces had "neutralised" 33 jihadists in the central Malian region of Mopti, in an operation that had started the previous night.
In a statement, the French military command said the drone strike happened during a follow-up operation Saturday in which another seven jihadist fighters were killed.