4 UN troops killed in Mali attacks

Four United Nations peacekeepers died and several others were wounded when suspected Islamists attacked their base in Mali's restive north, as three Malian soldiers perished in an ambush in the same region, security sources said.

The latest attacks highlighted the vulnerability of the sprawling arid north, where UN peacekeepers and Malian soldiers are struggling in their fight against jihadists who had seized vast swathes of territory in 2012.

A camp of the UN mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, was attacked with rockets early yesterday in the strategic town of Kidal in the northeast, a UN source said. Two Guinean soldiers died on the spot. Two other soldiers, among seven seriously wounded, died later of their injuries, the Guinean source said.