This soldier of the 7th battalion of alpine hunters from Varces (Isère) had already been decorated several times for his services. His death brings the number of French soldiers killed in action in the Sahel to 52 since 2013.
A national tribute will be paid to Master Corporal Maxime Blasco, who died in combat in Mali, Wednesday, September 29 at 4:30 p.m. in Les Invalides, France Televisions learned. The French soldier was killed “during a reconnaissance and harassment operation“jihadist forces, last Friday, in the region of Gossi, near the border with Burkina Faso. Maxime Blasco was pacsé and father of a child.
Maxime Blasco was on his fourth engagement in Operation Barkhane in three years. In 2019, he saved the lives of two of his comrades after their Gazelle helicopter crashed. Seriously injured, especially with multiple vertebral fractures, he had succeeded in extracting them over about fifty meters before installing them. “in a somewhat artisanal way on the skates” a Tiger helicopter to extract them from the combat zone.
This soldier of the 7th battalion of alpine hunters from Varces (Isère), with an exceptional career, had already been decorated several times. In June, he notably received the military medal for the exceptional value of his services. His death brings to 52 the number of French soldiers killed in action in the Sahel since 2013 in the anti-jihadist operations Serval and then Barkhane, to which are added six deaths by accident. The death of the master corporal comes at the time when France began the partial disengagement of the Barkhane force in the Sahel.
