Jihadists killed a village imam in central Mali who had refused their repeated attempts to recruit him, a local official told Agence France Presse Friday.

Gunmen with suspected links to radical Islamic preacher Amadou Koufa killed the imam of Barkerou village, Aladji Sekou, on Thursday night, the official said on condition of anonymity.

A deadly hostage drama at a Mali hotel in which 13 people died -- including five U.N. workers -- was claimed Tuesday by fighters linked to the notorious one-eyed Algerian jihadi leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

A radical associated with militant Malian Islamic leader Amadou Koufa said he gave his "blessing" for the attack on the Byblos Hotel in the central town of Sevare.

A deadly attack and hostage-taking at a Mali hotel is believed to be the work of an Islamist organization with ties to an Al-Qaida linked group, investigators said Monday.

Although no-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, investigators found phone numbers and addresses on the bodies of the "terrorists" which suggested they belonged to an Islamist group.

A jihadist group is strongly suspected of carrying out the hotel siege in Mali that ended with the deaths of at least 12 people including five U.N. workers, a security source said Sunday.

No one has claimed responsibility for the assault in the central town of Sevare, which coincided with a surge in jihadist attacks spreading through the region in recent months.

At least 12 people including four foreign U.N. contractors died in a hostage siege at a hotel in central Mali that ended early Saturday when government troops stormed the building.

"There are 12 dead in all," an army officer told Agence France Presse after the operation at the Hotel Byblos in Sevare, listing the fatalities as five "terrorists", five soldiers and "two white people".

Gunmen stormed a hotel in central Mali on Friday in an apparent attempt to kidnap Westerners, killing at least three people and seizing hostages in an ongoing standoff with the army.

Among the dead were two Malian soldiers, while the body of a white man was seen lying sprawled outside the hotel in the town of Sevare, military sources said.

Malian forces on Wednesday arrested five people suspected of involvement in an attack that left 11 soldiers dead, but the release of a former top jihadist sparked outrage among human rights groups.

The latest arrests come as the west African country, which has seen several uprisings since independence from France in 1960, looks to implement a peace deal despite continuing unrest from militant groups and spreading jihadist attacks since the beginning of the year.

Eleven soldiers were killed Monday in a "terrorist" attack on their camp in northern Mali's Timbuktu region, a government statement said, an assault claimed by al-Qaida's front group in the region.

Jihadist attacks have long been concentrated in Mali's north, but began spreading at the beginning of the year to the center of the country, and in June to the south near the borders with Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.

At least 10 soldiers were killed Monday in a "terrorist" attack on their camp in northern Mali's Timbuktu region, military sources said.

"This morning at Gourma-Rharous we pushed back a terrorist attack which caused 10 deaths in our ranks," the source said.

Two Malian soldiers were killed and four others injured in a weekend ambush in an area notorious for jihadist attacks, officials said.

The soldiers were fired on Saturday afternoon near Nampala close to the Mauritanian border, where Islamist fighters have long been active.