Mali Islamist group Ansar Dine claims attack on U.N. base

Malian soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint at the entrance to Timbuktu, Mali, after unknown assailants attacked and withdrew from inside a U.N. police base in the city, February 5, 2016. REUTERS/Moulaye Chirfi

DAKAR (Reuters) - Malian Islamist militant group Ansar Dine said it carried out a suicide and rocket attack on a U.N. base in Kidal, north Mali on Friday that killed six peacekeepers, the SITE Intelligence Group said.

Ansar Dine, led by Tuareg commander Iyad Ag Ghali, briefly seized the desert north alongside al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2012 and the two groups are involved in an intensifying insurgency that has spilled over Mali's borders.