At least five Malian
soldiers were killed in an attack by Tuareg
separatist rebels in a town near the border
with
Mauritania, a Malian military source
said on Thursday, further clouding
prospects for a U.N.-brokered peace deal.
Wednesday's attack on the town of Lere,
southwest of Timbuktu, was the latest in a
series of clashes between the rebels, the
Malian army, and a militia allied to the
government.
The United Nations has warned that the
growing tensions have endangered the
deal due to be signed in the Malian capital
Bamako on May 15.
"They attacked with at least 10 vehicles,
six of them equipped with machine guns,"
the military source said, asking to remain
anonymous. He added that several
assailants were killed in the fighting and
there could be other civilian victims.
The northern half of Mali has witnessed
several days of violence. Pro-government
militia seized Menaka, near the Niger
border, on Monday, while two soldiers and
a civilian were killed on Wednesday when
separatist rebels attacked Goundam, which
lies between Timbuktu and Lere.
In another sign of mounting insecurity in
the West African nation despite the
presence of 10,000 U.N peacekeepers, two
women were killed when a car they were
traveling in hit a land mine near the
northern town of Gossi on Thursday.
