Chapter 859: Raid

There is no doubt that those who can be deployed to the peacekeeping force are the elite of various countries - after all, this is the only way to show their military strength to other countries through international cooperation.

Therefore, not only Kolo, but also the troops of Burkina Faso and Niger participating in the AU peacekeeping mission in Mali are also the most elite troops in their countries, and the equipment they are equipped with is their most advanced.

For Niger, in the past, their army mainly cooperated with France, Italy and the United States and received their training.

In terms of military equipment, Niger's peacekeeping force is also mainly equipped with French and South African equipment.

There is no need to talk about French equipment. After all, Niger was once a French colony, and now France still has garrisons and military bases in Niger.

Therefore, their arms purchases are mainly French weapons.

As for their South African-made weapons and equipment, including Puma M26-15 armored vehicles and Mamba Mk 7 armored mine-proof vehicles, they all come from American military assistance - after all, the United States has deployed troops in Niger second only to Djibouti.

The situation of the Burkina Faso peacekeeping force is similar to that of Niger, except that they are almost all equipped with French weapons.

Burkina Faso also has an air force of several hundred people, whose main combat mission is to assist France in attacking domestic armed forces. It has one attack aircraft squadron, one transport aircraft squadron, and one helicopter squadron.

This also shows the influence of France in West Africa.

However, even though the 1,300 people from Niger and Burkina Faso in the three-nation peacekeeping force are already their most elite troops and their equipment is the best in their country, they still can't hide their envy when they see the equipment of the Kolo Corps.

After all, the French equipment of the two countries is eliminated by the French regular army or the second-line troops.

Even if Niger has military aid from the United States, it is all equipment produced in South Africa...

But the Kolo Corps uses all the active equipment of the British and American coalition forces in the Iraq War. Not only are their individual soldiers well-equipped, they even have M3 infantry fighting vehicles and M109 self-propelled howitzers.

It's not that the Kolo Corps can't get the US M1A2 main battle tanks, but it's not cost-effective for them.

However, what makes them most jealous is the Kolo Corps' aerial drones.

Although it is far inferior to the US Predator drones that can directly launch Hellfire ground-to-ground missiles, destroy enemy facilities, and kill personnel...

But the Jungle Wolf II drone is still very useful in detecting enemy movements and deployment.

At this time, the peacekeeping forces of the three countries have arrived at a small town about 200 kilometers northeast of Bamako, the capital of Mali. It is located on the flank of the road from Kona, a major town occupied by the "Defenders of the Faith" organization, to the capital. The straight-line distance from Kona is about 400 kilometers.

A total of 1,800 peacekeeping forces from three battalions in Kolo, Niger and Burkina Faso are deployed on three sides of the town to maintain a certain range of safety zones to prevent the rebels of the "Defenders of the Faith" organization from continuing to move south from here, and to accommodate and protect civilians fleeing from Kona.

In fact, they are not under much pressure from the rebels in this direction.

After all, according to the intelligence obtained, the main armed forces of the rebels are about 10,000 people, although their number is far higher than the number of peacekeeping forces of the three countries, and even more than the total number of troops of the African Union peacekeeping mission stationed in Mali this time.

But at this time, the rebels have split into two forces, and they are still on guard against each other.

In addition, they have considerable forces to garrison towns and put pressure on the capital, so the number of rebels opposite the three countries does not pose a great threat to them.

However, the peacekeeping forces of the Kolo Corps are not satisfied with just maintaining their safe zone from being attacked by the other side-although the rebels have received training from terrorist organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the excellent matching mechanism of the African region, although the rebels have previously pressed the Mali government forces to the ground, the Kolo Corps does not take their combat effectiveness seriously.

In fact, these armed forces in Africa are also relatively fierce when fighting with favorable winds, but they are not well organized. Once faced with adverse situations, they are easily defeated.

Moreover, through the reconnaissance of the Coyote II drone during this period, the peacekeeping force of the Kolo Corps has already mastered the situation on the other side.

There are nearly 2,000 armed rebels stationed in Kona, of which more than 400 have established a forward position in a village about 50 kilometers southwest of Kona.

According to the reconnaissance of the drone, it was found that the other side often sent several teams of dozens of people to harass and attack nearby towns and villages in the front.

Recently, these small harassment teams were less than 150 kilometers away from the safe zone where the peacekeeping force of the Kolo Corps was located.

Therefore, the peacekeeping force of the Kolo Corps is ready to eliminate these small harassment teams with the cooperation of drone intelligence.

Their intention is not to use ground forces to occupy the opponent's strongholds, but to eliminate their living forces.

The peacekeeping force of the Kolo Corps has five armed helicopters, including three Lynx and two Apache armed helicopters.

There are also three Chinook transport helicopters, each of which can transport 45 fully armed soldiers or 10 tons of cargo.

Therefore, three Chinook transport helicopters can easily transport a company of soldiers (about 120 people) or half a company of soldiers along with the heavy equipment such as military vehicles they are riding to the designated location, so as to maneuver and ambush the rebel harassment team.

These actions can also practice the information transmission and coordination between drones and ground forces in actual combat.

It should be noted that the designation of tactics is one thing. This time, the peacekeeping force of the Kolo Corps that came to Mali, in addition to the 15-member drone technical team, is composed of all black soldiers and officers from Kolo. Among them, the commander of the peacekeeping force, Malcolm Oliver, was sent to a certain army command college in China by the Kolo military government. After graduation, he joined the Kolo Corps and led the team to Iraq to perform security tasks.

It can be said that Malcolm Oliver is the best of the local black officers in the Kolo Corps. He has outstanding performance and excellent style of leading soldiers. Therefore, he was appointed as the commander of the peacekeeping force entering Mali this time.

Malcolm most admires "The Art of War" and is an officer who likes to use variable tactics.

He personally led the team to carry out the operation this time.

After discovering the rebel harassment team, Malcolm led nearly 50 elite soldiers to fly to the nearby area in a Chinook transport helicopter using the enemy's movements provided by the Coyote II drone, and then got off the plane and took a military vehicle to ambush the enemy in advance at the place where the enemy must pass on the way back.

During this period, armed helicopters will also provide air support.

In this way, even if they have a similar number of people as the enemy, under such an ambush, the rebels can basically not organize an effective counterattack and will be wiped out in the rout.

After two such ambushes and killing more than a hundred rebels, the rebels near Kona began to shrink in the town and dared not go out to harass in small groups.

With such a result, the peacekeeping force of the Kolo Corps had almost zero casualties in the end-the only unlucky guy was too excited at the time and was scratched by a stray bullet when he stood up and fired.