Seven troopers are nonetheless lacking following the advanced assault within the rural commune of Mondoro, which concerned automotive bombs, in keeping with a authorities assertion.
Seventy “terrorists” have been killed within the army’s response, the assertion stated, with out specifying which militant group was accountable. Associates of each al Qaeda and Islamic State are energetic in central Mali.
Mali has been going through an Islamist insurgency since al Qaeda-linked militants seized its desert north in 2012, forcing former colonial energy France to intervene to drive them again the next yr.
The militants have since regrouped and seized huge swaths of the Malian countryside, whereas additionally increasing into Niger, Burkina Faso and different neighbouring international locations.
France has maintained hundreds of troops throughout the area since 2013, however introduced final month that it will withdraw its forces from Mali as relations with the ruling army junta soured.
