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Mali: Five suicide bombers dead in failed attacks in the north
At least five suicide bombers died in northern Mali on Friday in attacks aimed at Malian and Nigerien troops which failed to inflict serious casualties on their targets, a spokesman for Mali’s army said.
One of the towns hit was Gossi, the furthest south al Qaeda-linked Islamists have struck in a guerrilla war launched against Malian and regional forces since the rebels were driven from their former strongholds in an offensive this year.
The attacks have had limited success so far but threaten to undermine international calls for elections to be held across Mali in July although security is not yet fully restored to a zone that was occupied by Islamists last year.
The suicide raids took place nearly simultaneously between 4 and 5 a.m. local time in Menaka and Gossi, near Gao.
“The first attack targeted Nigerien soldiers in Menaka. A car bomb entered the military camp, but the soldiers … destroyed the vehicle, which exploded,” Lieutenant Colonel Souleymane Maiga told reporters.
Hours after the attacks, Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou reiterated calls for elections due in July to be held across the entire country.
“No part of Mali should be deprived of the possibility of organizing an election,” Issoufou told journalists.
