Two French soldiers were killed in northwestern Mali when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device on Saturday, according to the French presidency. A similar attack on French troops based in Mali killed three troops just days earlier.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed grief over the deaths of Sergeant Yvonne Huynh and Brigadier Loic Risser in the Menaka region, his office said in a statement. Another soldier was wounded in the blast, it added.

Huynh, 33, was the first female soldier sent to the Sahel region since the French operation against Islamists began there in 2013.

Both Huynh and Risser were members of a regiment specializing in intelligence work.

"Their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device during an intelligence mission," the French presidency said of Saturday's incident.

Battle against jihadis

Around 5,100 French troops are stationed across the Sahel region and have been fighting jihadi groups alongside soldiers from Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, who together make up the G5 Sahel group.

The al-Qaida-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) had claimed responsibility for an earlier attack that killed three French soldiers in central Mali.

The group, the main jihadi alliance in the Sahel, says the main reasons for its continued attacks on French troops is France's military presence in the region as well as the publication of Prophet Mohammad's by a French newspaper and Macron's defense of them in the name of freedom of expression.

President Macron has affirmed France's determination to continue its role in "the battle against terrorism."

Last month, France said its forces killed Bah ag Moussa, a leader of al-Qaida's North Africa wing, during an operation in northeastern Mali.

In November, French forces killed 50 terrorists linked to al-Qaida central Mali.

shs/aw  (AFP, Reuters, dpa)