Malian troops backed by United Nations helicopters stormed a UN police base in the city of Timbuktu and recaptured it from suspected Islamist militants who had seized it hours before on Friday, the UN said.
Malian Defence Minister, Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, told reporters that an army commander was killed in the rescue operation as well as three of the attackers, whom he called terrorists.
A fourth assailant blew himself up, while others were being sought, he added.
The incident followed a series of bold attacks by al Qaeda militants in West Africa, including a hotel siege in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou last month in which 30 people including many foreigners were killed, Reuters reported.
A group of around six militants drove up to the UN base in the former Hotel Palmeraie at the entrance to Timbuktu at dawn and detonated a car bomb before holing up inside, security sources said.
“It’s over now,” said UN mission spokesman, Olivier Salgado. “They are now inspecting the site and looking for explosive devices.” The former hotel had been taken over exclusively by a Nigerian UN police contingent.
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