Twin attacks in Mali this week left 16 soldiers killed and wounded 18, the army said on Tuesday.
The latest violence in the Sahel State was a sequel to the attacks on Monday in the northeast and center of the conflict-torn country.
The statement of the army lifted a former toll of four soldiers dead and 17 injured, to the latest toll recorded on Tuesday.
The army said that thirty-seven “terrorists” were also killed during the attacks, with weapons and munitions captured.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for one of Monday’s attacks, on a military outpost in northeastern Mali.
“The Mujahideen took full control over the military base and torched it,” the group said in a statement, verified by SITE Intelligence which monitored jihadist activities worldwide.
Mali, impoverished nation of 21 million people, had struggled to contain a jihadist insurgency that emerged in 2012, before spreading to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians had been killed in the brutal conflict and hundreds of thousands of people had fled their homes.
AFP
