Around 15 militants have been killed in an attack on a United Nations base in northern Mali's historic city of Timbuktu, the French military told AFP on Sunday.

The UN's MINUSMA force said one of its peacekeepers had been killed in Saturday's four-hour rocket, mortar and car bomb attack at international troops' "Super Camp" neighbouring Timbuktu's airport, and around a dozen were wounded.

France said seven of its soldiers were hurt, lowering an initial toll from Malian authorities who had said a dozen French troops were wounded.

Some of the assailants, who have yet to be identified, came disguised as peacekeepers in order to sow confusion among troops trying to repel the attack.

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix deplored the assault on Twitter, vowing: "Our determination to support peace in Mali remains unshakeable."

French military spokesman Patrik Steiger said the attackers had "failed in their objective of causing the maximum damage possible".

"Around 15 (attackers) were killed," he added, some of them outside the military camp's outer walls.

"Some attackers managed to enter, including some disguised as peacekeepers," he said, adding the attack had not involved any friendly fire.

Mali's security ministry said Saturday the assailants had tried to detonate two car bombs, one of them a vehicle in the colours of the Malian armed forces and the other carrying the UN logo.

The first exploded while troops managed to immobilise the second, the ministry said.

The French military said there had been three car bombs.

Steiger said allied troops managed to regain control with the help of fighter jets sent from a French base in neighbouring Niger as well as helicopters carrying elite troops.

"By dawn the situation was stable," he said.

Mali's unrest stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

More than a dozen of Timbuktu's holy shrines, built in the 15th and 16th centuries when the city was revered as a centre of Islamic learning, were razed in a campaign against idolatry by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists.

The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

But vast stretches of the country remain out of the control of Malian, French and UN forces, which are frequent targets of attacks.

The UN's Timbuktu Super Camp, where Saturday's attack took place, was already the scene of an attack last May which killed a Liberian peacekeeper and wounded nine.

In August 2017 armed men launched another assault on the camp, which hosts MINUSMA contingents from numerous countries. Seven security force members and six attackers were killed, according to the UN. </s> Around 15 militants have been killed in an attack on a United Nations base in northern Mali’s historic city of Timbuktu, the French military told AFP on Sunday.

The UN’s MINUSMA force said one of its peacekeepers had been killed in Saturday’s four-hour rocket, mortar and car bomb attack at international troops’ “Super Camp” neighbouring Timbuktu’s airport, and around a dozen were wounded.

France said seven of its soldiers were hurt, lowering an initial toll from Malian authorities who had said a dozen French troops were wounded.

Some of the assailants, who have yet to be identified, came disguised as peacekeepers in order to sow confusion among troops trying to repel the attack.

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix deplored the assault on Twitter, vowing: “Our determination to support peace in Mali remains unshakeable.”

French military spokesman Patrik Steiger said the attackers had “failed in their objective of causing the maximum damage possible”.

“Around 15 (attackers) were killed,” he added, some of them outside the military camp’s outer walls.

“Some attackers managed to enter, including some disguised as peacekeepers,” he said, adding the attack had not involved any friendly fire.

Mali’s Security ministry said Saturday the assailants had tried to detonate two car bombs, one of them a vehicle in the colours of the Malian armed forces and the other carrying the UN logo.

The first exploded while troops managed to immobilise the second, the ministry said.

The French military said there had been three car bombs.

Mr Steiger said allied troops managed to regain control with the help of fighter jets sent from a French base in neighbouring Niger as well as helicopters carrying elite troops.

“By dawn the situation was stable,” he said.

Mali’s unrest stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north. </s> Militants disguised as U.N. peacekeepers exploded two suicide car bombs and fired dozens of rockets at the French and United Nations bases in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu on Saturday, killing one and wounding many, Malian authorities said.

The U.N. mission confirmed that the complex attack had killed a U.N. peacekeeper. The Malian government said in addition that 10 French soldiers had been wounded, but the French mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Terrorists wearing blue helmets aboard two cars laden with explosives, including one in the colours of the Malian army and another with a ‘UN’ written in it, attempted to infiltrate these camps,” the Malian government statement said.

“The situation is now under control.”

U.N. peacekeeping and French military forces stationed in northern Mali have been under near-constant attack over the past year by determined and well-armed jihadist groups seen as the gravest threat to security across Africa’s Sahel region.

But even by the standards of Mali’s increasingly emboldened Islamist fighters, Saturday’s attempted breach of two foreign bases at once was ambitious.

“MINUSMA confirms a significant complex attack on its camp in Timbuktu mortars, exchange of fire, vehicle suicide bomb attack,” the mission tweeted. “One blue helmet was killed in the exchange of fire.”

The United Nations last month said 162 people deployed in Mali have been killed since 2013, making it the world’s deadliest peacekeeping operation to date.

A 2015 peace deal signed by Mali’s government and separatist groups has failed to end violence in northern Mali by Islamists, who have also staged assaults on high-profile targets in the capital, Bamako, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

French forces intervened in 2013 to drive back Islamist fighters who had hijacked a Tuareg uprising a year earlier, and some 4,000 French troops remain. The U.N. Security Council then deployed peacekeepers to the country, but they have been targets of a concerted guerrilla campaign. </s> At least eight UN peacekeepers have been killed and many injured in a “major” assault on one of their bases in the northeastern Mali, where various Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-linked groups have been active.

The incident occurred early on Sunday in the northeastern Kidal province near the village of Aguelhok. A group of militants attacked the base using “many armed vehicles,” a statement issued by the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, said. The attack was successfully repelled, it added.

At least eight soldiers with the UN mission died in the clashes, the statement said, adding that “several others” were injured without specifying the exact number. A Malian security source told AFP that at least 19 servicemen were injured in the incident.

The identities of the affected soldiers were not officially revealed. However, some local media suggested that all those killed were from Chad. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far but Al Qaeda affiliates declared they made previous attacks. Two peacekeepers were killed in the assault on this base in April 2018.

The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Mali, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, condemned the attack and said it “demands a robust, immediate and concerted response from all forces,” adding that MINUSMA “will not let this barbarity go unpunished.”

In recent years, Mali has been hit by conflict with both Islamist rebels and ethnic Tuareg separatists. A peace treaty was signed with the secular Tuareg groups in 2012, who subsequently joined forces with the government to fight Al-Qaeda-linked militants, who had been seizing territory and imposing Sharia law on the towns and villages in the north including the ancient city of Timbuktu.

France sent troops to Mali in 2013 and managed to successfully drive back most of the Islamist factions, but violence still plagues the country’s northern regions. One of the most devastating attacks that took place in 2017 saw 60 people killed and scores injured as five suicide car bombers detonated explosives at a military base in the northern Malian city of Gao. </s> At least 14 soldiers have been killed and 17 others sustained injuries in the central Malian city of Timbuktu after unknown gunmen attacked their camp, according to military sources.

Unidentified armed men attacked the camp in the town of Soumpi at around 6 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Saturday.

"The provisional toll is 14 dead, 17 wounded and two enemies killed. The search is still on for those missing," said one of the military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another military source confirmed the attack, putting the death toll at “around 15.”

"The soldiers abandoned their position. The enemy carried away material," the unnamed source said.

The attack came two days after 26 civilians were killed and several others injured when their vehicle was blown up by a mine in central Mali.

According to Malian army spokesman Colonel Diarran Kone, the vehicle had crossed the volatile border with neighboring Burkina Faso, where militants loyal to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group are known to operate, when it ran over the mine.

In a separate incident, the Malian military said its forces had come under attack in the town of Youwarou near Mopti, once a popular tourist spot, but that they had repelled it.

"They neutralized seven terrorists and recovered equipment abandoned by the assailants," it said.

In the past three years, Takfiri forces, which had long been destabilizing the thinly populated desert north of Mali, have swept south into its wetter, more populated central regions, exploiting local conflicts to spread militancy.

Mali plunged into turmoil after President Amadou Toumani Toure was overthrown in a military coup on March 22, 2012.

The coup leaders said they staged the putsch in response to the government’s inability to contain the rebellion in the country’s north.

In January 2013, French soldiers were deployed to Mali under the pretext of putting an end to the crisis in the West African country, a former colony of France.

Unrest rages on across Mali despite the presence there of an 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, which has been stationed in the country since July 2013, as well as 1,000 French forces. </s> At least one peacekeeper has been killed and a dozen more injured when suspected terrorists dressed as United Nations peacekeepers attacked two bases in Mali with rockets and car bombs.

The attackers fired a dozen rockets at the bases of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, Minusma, and the French-led Operation Barkhane, Mali's security ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The attack took place on Saturday afternoon, near Timbuktu's airport.

The attackers wore blue helmets and drove vehicles marked with the U.N. acronym. Their vehicles were also rigged with explosives. One of the vehicles exploded, while the other was intercepted by troops.

Ten troops in the Barkhane camp were injured, with five seriously wounded. One Malian soldier was killed, while two others were injured, the statement said.

Security forces are still searching for the attackers.

In a tweet, Under Secretary for Peacekeeping Jean-Pierre Lacroix condemned the attack, but reiterated the U.N.'s unwavering determination to support peace in Mali. </s> The UN's MINUSMA force said one of its peacekeepers had been killed in Saturday's four-hour rocket, mortar and car bomb attack at international troops' "Super Camp" neighbouring Timbuktu's airport. Seven others were wounded along with two civilians.

France said seven of its soldiers were hurt, lowering an initial toll from Malian authorities who had said a dozen French troops were wounded.

Some of the assailants, who have yet to be identified, came disguised as peacekeepers in order to sow confusion among troops trying to repel the attack.

MINUSMA head Mahamat Saleh Annadif praised the peacekeepers who "valiantly repulsed in close coordination with the international forces" this "massive and far-reaching attack".

"This attack illustrates once again the cowardice for terrorist groups in the face of which the United Nations and their partners continue to stand opposed with unfailing determination," he said in a statement.

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix deplored the assault on Twitter, vowing: "Our determination to support peace in Mali remains unshakeable."

French military spokesman Patrik Steiger said the attackers had "failed in their objective of causing the maximum damage possible".

"Around 15 (attackers) were killed," he added, some of them outside the military camp's outer walls.

"Some attackers managed to enter, including some disguised as peacekeepers," he said, adding that friendly fire was not involved.

Mali's security ministry said Saturday the assailants had tried to detonate two car bombs, one of them a vehicle in the colours of the Malian armed forces and the other carrying the UN logo.

The first exploded while troops managed to immobilise the second, the ministry said.

The French military said there had been three car bombs. </s> A rocket and car bomb attack left one UN peacekeeper dead, a dozen wounded and another dozen French soldiers hurt at Timbuktu’s airport area, Mali’s security ministry said Saturday.

“A terrorist attack targeted” France’s Barkhan camp as well as UN troops stationed outside the northern Mali city during the afternoon, the ministry said on Facebook.

A dozen rockets were fired at the two camps with gunmen dressed as UN blue helmets riding two vehicles rigged with bombs.

“One of the vehicles exploded, while the second bearing the UN sign was halted,” the statement said.

The ministry said the latest casualty toll was one UN soldier dead, a dozen wounded, five of them seriously, and a dozen French soldiers also hurt.

“The fighting ended towards 18h30. The sector is being searched. The situation is under control,” it added.

A foreign security source told AFP that the assault was “unprecedented” in Timbuktu.

The United Nations had earlier released the same toll for its troops.

In a tweet, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali announced, “One blue helmet was killed in gunfire exchanges with the assailants, a dozen wounded.”

MINUSMA had earlier “confirmed a major and complex attack on the camp at Timbuktu this afternoon (mortars + exchanges of fire + suicide attack vehicle)”.

“It’s the first time there has been an attack on this scale against the MINUSMA in Timbuktu,” the security source said.

“We’ve never seen an attack like this,” an official from the Timbuktu governorate told AFP.

Unrest in Mali stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state, which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

More than a dozen of Timbuktu’s holy shrines, built in the 15th and 16th centuries when the city was revered as a centre of Islamic learning, were razed in a campaign against idolatry by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012.

The United Nations has nearly 13,000 troops and police in Mali, many of whom are deployed in the country’s lawless north.

Seven UN peacekeepers have been killed in attacks in Mali this year alone, serving in a mission that has been described as the UN’s most dangerous.

A total of 102 have been killed since MINUSMA’s deployment began in 2013.

Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

Insurgents remain active, linked to drug, arms and migrant trafficking in the vast Sahel region. </s> In four and a half hours of fighting about 10 UN troops and as many soldiers with France's Barkhane operation were injured, according to Mali's security ministry.

A dozen rockets were fired at the UN and French bases at to the city's airport. At the same time gunmen dressed as UN blue helmets tried to enter the compounds in two vehicles rigged with bombs, one bearing the Malian military's marking, the other the UN's.

Only one of the vehicles exploded.

"At the turn towards the airport I noticed that there was a first vehicle, a white pick-up truck with UN insignia, that had been stopped with its charge of explosives," Timbuktu journalist Yéya Tandina told RFI. "I felt there was panic in the ranks of Minusma. They were firing all over the place."

Six local residents, including a 10-year-old child, were hospitalised with bullet wounds, the local hospital said.

Sources told the AFP news agency that this is the first attack on such a scale against the UN forces in Timbuktu.

The United Nations has nearly 13,000 troops and police in Mali, many of them deployed in the north of the country where French forces have been operating since an Islamist and Tuareg separatist revolt in 2013.

Some 1,500 African, American and European troops have been training in the west and north of neighbouring Niger.

They will reinforce the G5 Sahel force of African nations fighting armed Islamists in the region.
Militants disguised as United Nations troops attack two military bases near Timbuktu, Mali, using rockets and two car bombs. At least one soldier at the bases, used by France and the UN, is killed and more than twelve others are wounded.