MALI: Car bomb attack kills civilians, wounds French soldiers

An attack on a military patrol in northern Mali on Sunday killed four civilians and wounded 31 other people including eight French soldiers, Mali’s security and defense ministries said. The ambush, which involved a car bomb explosion followed by gunfire, took place two days after militants killed at least six people during a raid on […]

An attack on a military patrol in northern Mali on Sunday killed four civilians and wounded 31 other people including eight French soldiers, Mali’s security and defense ministries said.

The ambush, which involved a car bomb explosion followed by gunfire, took place two days after militants killed at least six people during a raid on a military headquarters in central Mali.

“From hospital sources, the provisional record after the suicide attack against a Barkhane patrol in Gao today…was 4 civilians dead and 31 seriously injured, including 8 from Barkhane,” Mali’s security ministry said on Twitter. Barkhane is the name of the near 4,000-strong French force stationed in its former colonies across the Sahel region. A spokesman for the defense ministry confirmed the figures. “I confirm that it was a car bomb that drove into a joint Barkhane/Malian army patrol,” Boubacar Diallo said.