Six UN peacekeepers among 9 troops killed in Mali attacks

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Six UN peacekeepers among 9 troops killed in Mali attacks

Bamako - Suicide bombers drove a vehicle into the base between two rocket launches, then blew it up, the Guinean source in the UN mission said.

By AFP

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Published: Sat 13 Feb 2016, 6:00 AM

Last updated: Sat 13 Feb 2016, 8:02 AM

Six UN peacekeepers were killed and some 30 wounded on Friday when suspected militants attacked their base in northern Mali, officials said, while three Malian soldiers died in an ambush as militants intensify attacks in the restive region.
The six Guinean peacekeepers were killed in an early morning assault on a camp in the northeastern town of Kidal belonging to the United Nations' MINUSMA, according to a Guinean source in the mission and a military source in Conakry.
Ansar Dine, responsible for several previous assaults, claimed the attack by a Mauritanian militant group as "a message to the crusader aggressors and all those who support them" in a statement carried by a Mauritanian news agency.

The latest attacks highlighted the vulnerability of Mali's sprawling, arid north, where UN troops and Malian soldiers are struggling in their fight against militants who seized vast swathes of territory in 2012.
Suicide bombers drove a vehicle into the base between two rocket launches, then blew it up, the Guinean source in the UN mission said.
The raid coincided with a visit to northern Mali by the new chief of MINUSMA, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who said the raid was an "odious and irresponsible act" that highlighted the "confusion in the ranks of the enemies of peace".
In a separate attack, three Malian soldiers were killed and two others were wounded near the fabled city of Timbuktu, a Malian military source said.
 


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