BAMAKO, MALI ¨C An al-Qaida affiliate and Tuareg rebels claimed responsibility on Saturday for coordinated attacks across Mali, in one of the boldest operations insurgents have mounted in their campaign against the military-led government.
Mali's army said in a statement it had killed "several hundred" assailants and repelled the assault, which hit multiple sites in or near the capital, Bamako.
It said a large-scale sweep operation was underway in Bamako, the nearby barracks town of Kati and elsewhere ?in the gold-producing country. It was unclear how many soldiers or civilians were killed in the attacks. In a statement read out on state television ?on Saturday evening, ?the government spokesperson, Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, said 16 people had been injured.
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