Eight Mali soldiers killed in ambush: army

Bamako (AFP) – Eight Mali soldiers were killed and four others injured in an ambush in the central Gao region on Friday, the army said.

The Malian force also suffered “material damage,” the military said on social media sites, without saying who had carried out the attack in the village of Bintia.

The deaths came hours after the news earlier Friday that 21 people had been killed in an overnight attack on another village in central Mali, apparently the latest deadly incident in a spate of ethnic violence in the deeply troubled region.