Operation Panther is a French military operation in Mali that was launched in February 2013. On 19 February 2013, heavy fighting occurred as French Special Forces pushed deeper into the Azawad hinterland in pursuit of Islamist insurgents. During the engagement one paratrooper from the French Foreign Legion and 20 Islamists were killed. French President François Hollande commented during a visit to Greece that one French soldier and many Islamists had been killed in the fighting.