United Nations peacekeepers die in Mali attack

BAMAKO, Mali — Suspected jihadists attacked a U.N. peacekeeping position in northern Mali on Friday, killing two peacekeepers from Niger and a Malian soldier and injuring 14 peacekeepers and a U.N. civilian contractor, authorities said.

The U.N. mission reported that at least three assailants were killed by return fire from the peacekeepers.

The mission in Mali and U.N. officials in New York said the assailants attacked the peacekeepers’ position in Indelimane, about 43 miles west of Menaka near the border with Niger, early Friday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though the Islamic State in the Sahel group is active in the region. The extremist group is believed to be behind an ambush of U.S. forces and their local counterparts in Niger that left four Americans dead last month.

After the attack, the U.N. said the Mali mission deployed three helicopters to evacuate the injured peacekeepers, 13 from Niger and one from Cambodia as well as the civilian. The U.N. mission’s aircraft with medical teams also deployed from Kidal and Bamako to evacuate some of the wounded, the U.N. said.

The mission in Mali dispatched a quick reaction force supported by attack helicopters to Indelimane to reinforce the peacekeepers on the ground, the U.N. said.

A 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow Mali’s president of a decade. The power vacuum that was created ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013. But insurgents remain active in the region.

The more than 11,000- strong U. N. peacekeeping mission in Mali has become the most dangerous in the world for soldiers as Islamic militants routinely attack U.N. peacekeepers and convoys across the north.

As of October, there had been 146 fatalities since the mission was established in 2013, according to U.N. peacekeeping data.