Suicide bomber kills at least three Chadian soldiers in Mali

BAMAKO: A suicide bomber killed at least three Chadian soldiers in Mali Friday in a deadly demonstration of the troubled nation's ongoing security crisis days after France began withdrawing its troops.

The soldiers were buying supplies in the northern city of Kidal when a bomber struck, according to military sources, on a deadly day for troops which also saw five Malian soldiers killed in a helicopter crash further south.

"Three Chadian soldiers were killed in an attack Friday in Kidal. It was jihadists who did it. The toll is still provisional," a Malian military source told AFP while a Chadian source spoke of "three Chadian soldiers killed and four others injured".

No details were initially available on how the attack was carried out. "The centre of Kidal is now sealed off. This is an Islamist attack against the Chadian troops," said one regional security source.

Located 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) northeast of Bamako, Kidal houses bases for the French and Chadian armies who provide security while the city is run by Tuareg rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).

It is the chief town of a region of the same name that includes the Ifoghas mountains, where French and Chadian soldiers have spent several weeks hunting and engaging entrenched Islamist fighters.

The city has already seen two suicide bombings, on February 21 and 26, the first targeting French military and killing the driver of the car bomb and the second killing seven MNLA members manning a checkpoint.