Bamako - The bodies of eight Malian
soldiers killed in an ambush by suspected Islamist fighters last
week have been discovered in the West African nation's desert
north, a local lawmaker and army officer said on Monday.
The soldiers went missing a week ago after their convoy was
attacked on the road between the towns of Gao and Menaka.
"They were killed in the fighting last week ... There are
eight of them. I have two nephews who were killed," said Badian
Ag Hamatou, a member of parliament from Menaka. "They were
encircled by the jihadists."
A senior army officer, who asked not to be named, said a
team sent to the scene had been able to identify the bodies as
those of the missing soldiers. They were buried where they were
found, he said.
Malian soldiers are regularly targeted in attacks by
Islamist groups, some of them with links to al Qaeda.
Islamist fighters seized northern Mali in 2012 before they
were driven back by a French-led military intervention a year
later. But they remain active despite the presence of a U.N.
peacekeeping mission and a 4,000-troop cross-border French
operation to stamp them out.
Leaders of five countries in West Africa's Sahel region
launched a multinational force this month with a primary mission
of tackling the Islamist militants, who have spread their
violence beyond Mali's borders to neighbouring states.