I would like to thank the parliamentary secretary for his comments.
I'll say it again: we greatly appreciate Canada's support during this time, with the deployment of the aircraft, the announcement in Addis Ababa and the numerous telephone calls between the most senior officials of our two countries during this time.
As I just said, the operation, which we have named "Operation Serval", continues. First, there are air strikes, with targets like logistics depots, gas depots and training centres for the various terrorists that have been identified. This is particularly the case in the Kidal and north of Kidal, in the Aguelhok region and Tessalit region, where the tragic events my colleague just mentioned took place.
There are also patrols organized by our French and Malian troops around the various cities that have been liberated, because it hasn't been ruled out that certain terrorists are continuing to hide. For example, in those areas, there has been hostile firing of rocket launchers by residual groups in the Gao region. As the president of France said, operations must be pursued up to the northern mountains, so to Adrar des Ifoghas.
These are the objectives that the French forces are currently targeting. Where we are at now, we are in the air because there are still hostile groups that have been seen there. This remaining phase is delicate and difficult because the terrain is mountainous and there are still hostile elements in the area. The sooner this area is controlled and secure, the better it will be, but we aren't done yet.