2 Soldiers Killed In Sophisticated Militant Attack On Tarkint Base

Two Malian troops have been killed and 10 injured in a complex attack on a base in northeastern Mali, reports the Defense Post.

The attack on Tuesday included the use of a car bomb against a military base in Tarkint in the Gao region, said the Malian Ministry of Defense.

The incident is the latest in a series of attacks against security forces this month.

On Jan. 25, two U.N. peacekeepers from Sri Lanka were killed and six injured in a roadside bombing near Douentza in the central Mopti region, said the U.N. mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

Ten Chadian peacekeepers were killed and 25 injured in a similar attack on a U.N. camp in the northern city of Aguelhok five days earlier.

The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM), a Mali-based terrorist organization affiliated with Al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

On Monday, a military vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Toye in the central Segou region, killing one soldier and injuring two, reported Studio Tamani (Mali).

The number of improvised explosive device attacks in Mali have increased steadily since January 2018, according to the latest U.N. quarterly report on Mali. Attacks reached 192 last year, up from 124 during the same period in 2017, the report said. More than half of the attacks targeted Malian security forces, particularly in the central Mopti region and Timbuktu and Gao in the north, reported Agence France-Presse.