Defense Minister Florence Parly tweeted Monday night that the French force in the region also confiscated weapons and equipment from the fighters in the operation last Friday, which she said “shows once again that terrorist groups cannot act with impunity.” Drones monitoring the region in northern Mali spotted a convoy of suspected fighters on motorcycles, prompting France to launch the operation, first with airstrikes and then with a ground operation by French commandos, according to an official with the French military headquarters.

Separately, a larger military operation has been under way for several weeks in the area near Mali's border with Burkina Faso and Niger, said the official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to military policy.

Parly visited Mali's capital, Bamako, on Monday and Tuesday, and met with the head of the transitional government. After Mali's president was ousted in August by a military junta, she urged democratic elections “as quickly as possible” and said the current leadership promised to ensure them.

France, which has suffered repeated deadly Islamic extremist attacks, has thousands of troops in a force called Barkhane in West Africa to help fight extremist groups there.