Militants kill 54 in deadly Mali attack; IS claims responsibility

BAMAKO, Mali - At least 53 soldiers and one civilian have been killed in an attack on an army post in northern Mali, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest strikes against the West African country's military in recent memory.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq news agency later on Saturday, without providing evidence.

"Soldiers of the caliphate attacked a military base where elements of the apostate Malian army were stationed in the village of Indelimane," the IS group said on social media.

The militant group has posted dozens of claims of responsibility for attacks in several countries since US special forces killed its previous leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, last weekend.

Malian authorities first reported the attack in Indelimane, Menaka region, on Friday, but gave a lower provisional death toll.

"Heavily armed unidentified men attacked around noon. The attack started with shellfire. ... Then they retreated toward Niger," government spokesman Yaya Sangare told Reuters on Saturday.

He added the death toll remained provisional as corpses were undergoing identification, and that the army was undertaking a combing operation on the ground with support from international forces, including French troops from the Barkhane operation and United Nations peacekeepers.

"The dispatched reinforcements found 54 bodies including one civilian, 10 survivors, and found considerable material damage," Sangare said on Twitter earlier on Saturday.

France said one of its soldiers there had died after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device, according to a statement by the French presidency.

On Saturday, French Corporal Ronan Pointeau, 24, died after an armored vehicle in which he was traveling hit an improvised explosive device near the city of Menaka, French Defence Ministry said.

Pointeau and his colleagues were escorting a convoy between the cities of Gao and Menaka.

The IS group also claimed responsibility for that, saying its fighters had "detonated an explosive device on a French army convoy in the Indelimane area".

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said she would be "visiting Mali very soon to hold discussions with Malian authorities".

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Pointeau and expressed solidarity with the French and African troops fighting in the region.

The attacks came a month after two jihadist assaults killed 40 soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso. Several sources have said the real death toll was higher.

Thirty-eight Malian soldiers were killed on Sept 30 in coordinated attacks on two army bases in central Mali, which has slipped from government control despite the presence of the French army and other international forces.

Agencies