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STORY: France's military on Sunday released video showing soldiers fighting in the mountains of northern Mali on March 2 as part of the operation Panther to clear Islamist militants out of their remaining strongholds.
The French paratroopers are taking part in an operation code-named Panther using fighter jets and combat helicopters.
France said on Sunday a third French soldier had been killed in fierce fighting with Islamist rebels in northern Mali but could not confirm Chad's report that its troops had killed the al Qaeda commander behind January's mass hostage-taking in Algeria.
A whirlwind seven-week campaign has driven al Qaeda-linked fighters who took over northern Mali last April into mountain and desert redoubts, where they are being hunted by hundreds of French, Chadian and Malian troops.
