BAMAKO (Reuters) -Islamist militants killed at least five soldiers and wounded at least eight more in central Mali on Wednesday, the army said, while local officials said more than 10 soldiers had died.
The attack occurred near the village of Bodio in the Mopti region, the epicentre of violence in Mali by insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, according to Moulaye Guindo, the mayor of the nearby town of Bankass.
“The death toll is heavy: 16 soldiers killed, 30 jihadists killed and 17 others wounded,” he told Reuters.
Another local official, who asked not be named, said more than 10 soldiers had been killed. The army said in a statement that the provisional death toll stood at five.
Malian soldiers as well as French counter-insurgency forces that support them and United Nations peacekepers are frequently targeted in central and northern Mali by the militants.
Fifteen Malian soldiers were killed in the centre of the West African country in August when their convoy was ambushed. A French serviceman was also killed last month in a clash with a militant group near Mali’s border with Burkina Faso.
(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Paul LorgerieEditing by Chris Reese and Mark Heinrich)
