Operation Serval Mali resulted in the deaths of 11 Islamist fighters. On the evening of April 16, 2014, the French army destroyed two pickup trucks containing jihadists north of Timbuktu. They then used air and ground forces to intercept other vehicles. During the night of April 16 to the 17th, the French special forces, backed by troops from Operation Serval and helicopters come in contact with the Islamist fighters. The French began by firing warning shots, but the jihadists refused to surrender and opened fire. Faced with the advance of the French military, they abandoned their vehicles and ran, suffering more losses.
Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War Russian-speaking “Caucasian” (often led by Chechens) battalions of about 150 men each, the rank and file of those having been drawn from Russia′s North Caucasus and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Israel's military role in the Syrian Civil War has been limited and until 2017 officially not acknowledged, whereas Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war since 1948, albeit without major open hostilities after the 1973 conflict. Israeli official position had until 2017 been neutrality in the civil war in Syria. Until the March 2017 strike, Israel's reported attacks on targets inside Syria were