Six UN peacekeepers among 9 troops killed in Mali attacks

Source: Yahoo! News / AFP

Bamako (AFP) - Six UN peacekeepers were killed and some 30 wounded on Friday when suspected Islamists attacked their base in northern Mali, officials said, while three Malian soldiers died in an ambush as jihadists 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 Nation's MINUSMA, according to a Guinean source in the mission and a military source in Conakry.

The latest attacks highlighted the vulnerability of Mali's sprawling arid north, where UN troops and Malian soldiers are struggling in their fight against jihadists who seized vast swathes of territory in 2012.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the "massive and complex" attack on the MINUSMA base, warning that targeting peacekeepers constitutes a war crime and pledging to support the Malian government.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/five-dead-30-injured-attack-un-peacekeepers-mali-174638347.html