France to Send Drones to Mali

Part of effort to push back against jihadists in the north

France is to send surveillance drones to back up west African intervention in northern Mali and is meeting top US diplomats in Paris this week to discuss the fighting the Islamist presence there, the AP news agency reports.

Citing an anonymous source in the French Defence Ministry, AP says that France plans to move two surveillance drones to west Africa from Afghanistan before the end of the year as part of an increasing role in the Malian conflict.

France is not believed to have any armed drones.