Bangladeshi soldier killed in Mali`s capital

Desk Report: Militants opened fire on two Bangladeshi solders, who are working as United Nations peacekeepers, in Mali`s capital Bamako on Monday, killing one and wounding the other, security sources said.

"Armed men that we have not yet identified shot at two peacekeepers who were on board a UN vehicle on Monday night. One of them was killed and the other seriously wounded," a Malian security source told AFP.

"We are seeking clarification and details. This has to be viewed as a terrorist act. The perpetrators are the enemies of peace," the source added.

A source from MINUSMA, the UN`s peacekeeping mission in Mali, told the news agency the two UN soldiers were Bangladeshi.

He said the peacekeepers had been travelling from Bamako airport towards the south of the city when they were shot at by assailants from a car.

With more than 40 peacekeepers killed since its inception in 2013, the 11,000-strong MINUSMA is considered the most dangerous UN mission in the world.

It is regularly targeted by militants in the north and, while attacks in the capital are rare, Monday`s ambush came just five days after a militant opened fire on a UN residence in the city`s Faso Kanu neighbourhood.

The unidentified gunman shot and wounded a civilian guard and hurled two grenades which failed to explode in the early hours of Wednesday last week, but no troops were hurt.

The country`s northern desert has been plagued by violence by jihadist groups that seized control of the region from Tuareg rebels before being routed by a French-led international intervention that began in 2013.

Agencies

risingbd/May 26, 2015/Aminul