France Rejects UN Report of Airstrike on Wedding Party 

PARIS - France is rejecting a U.N. report that said a French air strike in central Mali in January killed 19 civilians as part of anti-terrorist operations in the Sahel.   

What happened in the village of Bounti in central Mali on January 3 remains a question that is at the heart of a dispute between France and the U.N. peacekeeping mission to Mali, MINUSMA.  Earlier this week, a U.N. investigation concluded that a wedding celebration was hit by the French airstrike that killed the civilians and three armed men, allegedly jihadist members of the Katiba Serma militant group.  For the past three months, French authorities have denied that anything they hit was a wedding party or that there was any collateral damage in such an operation.