Overnight attack kills three Malian gendarmes

BAMAKO: Three Malian gendarmes were killed and three other people wounded Sunday in an attack on a military post in central Mali, officials said, in the latest jihadist violence in the West African state. Despite the presence of foreign troops, Mali has been struggling to quell an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012 and has since claimed thousands of military and civilian lives. The conflict has spread to central Mali, as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Militants attacked the military position in the area of Alatona in central Mali´s Niono region at around 0330 GMT on Sunday, according to army officials. Mali´s Security Minister General Salif Traore told AFP that three gendarmes — or members of the military police — died in the ambush. An army official who declined to be named said that three people were also wounded in the attack, and that militants made off with equipment, including two military vehicles. Sunday´s attack occurred only a few dozen kilometres from the site of a major assault by jihadists in January against the Sokolo military camp, which left 20 Malian soldiers dead and five wounded.