Airstrike kills 20 after wedding clash

At least 20 people have been killed in an airstrike on a village in central Mali where Islamic extremists had confronted a wedding party, witnesses said Tuesday.

The French military said “several dozens” of extremists were killed in a Sunday afternoon airstrike led by French fighter jets close to the village of Bounti.

A French military spokesman, Col. Frederic Barbry, denied a connection between the strike and a wedding party, saying such a link “does not correspond to information collected prior to the airstrike.” Barbry said the operation followed an intelligence mission that showed a “suspicious gathering of people.”