One Dead in Fresh Mali Attack near Mauritania

Suspected Islamist militants killed one person in an attack in central Mali on Wednesday, two days after 11 troops were killed in an assault on a nearby military base, local officials.

The latest attack took place in Djoura, a village close to the border with Mauritania, about 465 kilometers (290 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako.

After firing shots in the village and setting fire to the town hall the attackers fled north, shooting dead a civilian as they sped towards Mauritania, a senior official in Djoura said.

A Malian military source confirmed the report.

Both blamed the attack on gunmen who nhad stormed a Malian army base in Nampala Monday, about 60 kilometers from Djoura.

Eleven soldiers were killed and nine injured after an hours-long firefight between the attackers and Malian forces, military sources said.

Mauritanian news agency al-Akhbar cited sources from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) as claiming responsibility for the base attack.

Al-Qaida-affiliated insurgents overran northern Mali in 2012. They were routed from most parts of the vast west African country by French and Malian forces in January 2013 but have continued to carry out sporadic attacks.