of the UN mission in Mali in the north of the country, a Malian
security source said.
The attackers fired four rockets at the MINUSMA base close to the
border with Algeria at about 4:00 am (0400 GMT), the source told AFP,
but could not say whether the camp at Aguelhoc had been struck or if
there were any injuries.
"This is the work of the Islamists," he stated.
A Malian Islamist close to the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West
Africa (MUJAO) claimed responsibility for a first attack Wednesday on
the UN camp, in the Kidal region.
"In the name of all the mujahedeen, we have attacked the camp of the
enemies of Islam today at Aguelhoc," Sultan Ould Bady, known for his
links with MUJAO, told AFP.
Nine rockets were then fired on the base, one of which landed inside
its perimeter without causing any casualties, a UN source on the scene
said.
Three jihadist groups, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar
Dine and MUJAO, in 2012 took control of much of the desert north of
the west African country, including the three main towns of Kidal, Gao
and Timbuktu.
They seized power on the back of an uprising by ethnic Tuareg
separatists and imposed strict Sharia law and punishments for 10
months, before being ousted from the towns and forced back into desert
hideouts by a French military intervention launched in January 2013.
Though order has largely been restored across the territory, Islamist
extremists continue to carry out raids and attacks and French troops
are still on patrol.
They are blamed for a suicide attack on August 16 that killed two
soldiers from Burkina Faso serving with MINUSMA at Ber, a place near
the major town of Timbuktu.
AFP
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