France: 2 journalists killed in northern Mali were shot to death - Washington Post

The new details, shared by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius after a meeting of key ministers with French President Francois Hollande, failed to clarify who was behind the killings and why the pair was targeted.

He said the two were shot multiple times and their bodies found near the vehicle that whisked them away. Earlier, four Malian officials, including the head of the armed forces in Kidal said the journalists' throats had been slit.

The Radio France Internationale journalists were kidnapped Saturday after interviewing a Tuareg rebel leader in Kidal. The northern town is under de facto rebel control despite the presence of French and U.N. troops.

French troops, alerted to the kidnappings, set up checkpoints, sent out patrols and called in helicopters to search for the journalists, French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron said.

But a patrol arrived too late, finding the abandoned vehicle east of the town and the bodies nearby. The French troops, some 200 of whom are based at the Kidal airport, had earlier found no trace of the fleeing vehicle.

Fabius said the bodies were found some 12 kilometers (8 miles) outside Kidal and "several meters" from the vehicle. RFI chief Marie-Christine Saragosse said they were found 80 meters (87 feet) from the kidnappers' vehicle.

The killings were "odious, abject and revolting," Fabius said. He said one journalist had been hit with three bullets, the other two — but that the car, whose doors were locked, showed no impact from bullets.

Cecile Megie, RFI's executive editor, said the two journalists had been seized by a group that spirited them away in a beige pickup truck.

"The site showed no trace of fighting, gunfire. It was an execution," Megie said.

Despite January's French-led intervention and a presidential election since, much of Mali, especially the vast north, remains in turmoil.

Suspicion as to who was behind the killings grew as bits of information trickled out.

Both Tuareg separatists of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, known as the NMLA, and al-Qaida-linked fighters operate in the area.

The NMLA rebels launched their latest rebellion in 2012. Those rebels were later chased out by al-Qaida's fighters in the region but have returned to prominence in Kidal in recent months.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has kidnapped Westerners, but it tends not to kill them but rather to hold them for ransom as a means of bankrolling its operations.

The killings came four days after France rejoiced at the liberation of four other citizens, who had been kidnapped in neighboring Niger three years ago and were found in northwest Mali.