French Army Says 11 Militants Killed in Mali Anti-Terror Op

A French counter-terrorism offensive in northern Mali's Timbuktu region ended on Friday with 11 Islamist militants killed and a French soldier wounded, military sources inside the operation told Agence France Presse.

"The French military operation in the Timbuktu region is completed. Eleven terrorists were killed. A French soldier was wounded but his life is not in danger," said an official from France's Operation Serval military mission in its former colony.

A Malian military source confirmed the information, saying "the French have done a good job, because the jihadists, notably from Libya, are reorganizing to occupy the region and dig in permanently."

The sources said military equipment and phones belonging to Islamists were seized by French troops.

The operation took place a few hundred kilometers (miles) north of the desert caravan town of Timbuktu, according to a Malian security source.