Mali rocket attack kills three on UN base
UN soldiers patrol in Kidal. PHOTO: AFP
Two UN peacekeepers and a civilian were killed and 14 others were injured in a rocket attack Saturday on a UN base in the northeastern Malian town of Kidal, UN and local sources said.
Another UN source said 14 others were injured in the attack, including three seriously.
Attack on UN base in northern Mali causes casualties
The attack came eight days after a siege at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako, in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.
Armed men held around 170 guests and staff hostage in the November 20 siege that lasted about nine hours before Malian and international forces stormed the hotel to free the captives.
Two separate militant groups claimed responsibility for the hotel assault: the Al-Murabitoun group, an Al-Qaeda affiliate led by notorious one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and the Macina Liberation Front (LWF) from central Mali.
Mali has been torn apart by unrest since the north fell under the control of militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012.
Brazen attack: 27 dead after militants seize hotel in Mali
The militants were largely ousted by a French-led military intervention early the following year, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless and prone to extremist attacks.
MINUSMA's mission has been the costliest for UN peacekeepers in terms of human lives since the 1993-95 UNOSOM II mission in Somalia.
France has more than 1,000 troops in Mali, a former colony and a key battleground of its Barkhane counter-terror mission spanning five countries in Africa's restive Sahel region.