Malian soldiers killed three “terrorists” on Thursday during a cross-border search operation for jehadists backed by Ivorian troops, security sources said.
The exercise came after government and police buildings were ransacked in the southern Malian town of Fakola, 20 kilometres from Ivory Coast, on Sunday in an attack claimed by the Islamist militia Ansar Dine. Security sources say the fighters retreated into the Sama forest, on the border, after the ambush.
“Our forces initiated search operations in a Malian forest where the terrorists were hiding on the border with Ivory Coast. Three terrorists were killed,” a military official in Fakola told AFP. The official said Malian troops were scouring their side of the border while Ivorian soldiers and UN peacekeepers kept to theirs, clarifying earlier suggestions that the operation was confined to Mali.