Twin attacks in Mali this week have killed 16 soldiers and wounded 18, the army said late Tuesday, in the latest violence in the Sahel state.
The statement lifted the casualty toll of four soldiers dead and 17 injured in separate attacks Monday in the northeast and centre of the conflict-torn country.
Thirty-seven “terrorists” were also killed during the attack, the army said, and 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 monitors jihadist activities worldwide.
An impoverished nation of 21 million people, Mali has struggled to contain a jihadist insurgency that emerged in 2012, before spreading to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the brutal conflict and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.
