GAO, Mali, March 8 (UPI) -- French forces in Mali extradited a French jihadi fighter to France on Friday, officials said.
The man was the second militant to be extradited from Mali to France this week, Radio France Internationale reported.
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio Friday that the man, who was captured along with five other militants in the Ifoghas Mountains, was to be extradited to France "any minute now."
Drian said the presence of the two extradited men in Mali shows that "a terrorist network" has been set up "to recruit fighters and takes in radical youths, like those who have fought in Afghanistan and Syria."
French troops have been in Mali fighting militants, now mostly in the country's mountainous north.
Drian said French forces "have accomplished a large part of the work" in Mali.
