3 UN peacekeepers killed in attack northern Mali

Bamako: Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed and eight others wounded when they came under sustained attack in Kidal in Mali's troubled north, the UN said Friday.

The camp "came under heavy rocket/mortar fire" on Thursday and "a little later a position nearby was attacked" outside the base, the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, said in a statement.

The attack is just the latest to target the 12,000-strong force in the west African nation. Guinean and Chadian soldiers make the majority of those at the Kidal camp.

MINUSMA began work in Mali in 2013, providing security and assisting Malian troops struggling to keep the country safe, but has been targeted constantly by jihadists, with dozens of peacekeepers killed.

Northern Mali fell to jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in March 2012, and although these forces were driven out of key towns by a French-led military intervention the following year, the Islamists have now spread further south.