Algeria bans French military planes from airspace: French army
Gulf Times
File photo for representation.
The Algerian government has banned French military planes from its airspace, the French army said on Sunday, amid a diplomatic crisis sparked by a visa row and reported critical comments from President Emmanuel Macron.
France's jets regularly fly over Algerian territory to reach the Sahel region of western Africa, where its soldiers are helping to battle jihadist insurgents as part of its Barkhane operation.
"This morning when we filed flight plans for two planes, we learned that the Algerians had stopped flights over their territory by French military planes," an army spokesman, Colonel Pascal Ianni, told AFP.
He said the decision "does not affect our operations or intelligence missions" carried out in the Sahel.
