Daesh claims deadly attacks on Malian troops, French army convoy

Daesh on Saturday claimed responsibility for a devastating raid that killed 49 Malian troops as well as a blast that led to the death of a French soldier who became the latest casualty in the conflict-torn region.

Daesh terrorists "detonated an explosive device on a French army convoy in the Indelimane area", it said on its Telegram channel, shortly after also claiming an attack Friday on a Malian army base in the same region.

Daesh attacked the Malian military near the border with Niger, leaving at least 53 soldiers and one civilian dead, in the second major assault against the country's armed forces in a month, the government said on Saturday.

The latest violence to target Mali's armed forces took place Friday in Indelimane, located in Mali's volatile Menaka region.

"Reinforcements have been sent to the scene and the situation is under control with the support of the French military, which is helping to evacuate the wounded," government spokesman Yaya Sangare told the Associated Press.

The assailants were believed to have fled toward the border with Niger, Sangare said.

The new violence is likely to further raise tensions in the capital, Bamako, where military families have already protested in the streets. They say that soldiers are not being given the resources on the ground that they need to confront an array of Daesh.

Friday's violence occurred a month after 41 soldiers were killed and 20 others went missing during two attacks on Malian soldiers taking part in a regional counterterrorism force.

The two latest attacks are among the most deadly against the Malian army since a 2013 French-led military intervention that they said aimed to oust the militants from power in the major towns of northern Mali.

In a separate incident, a French army officer was killed when his armoured vehicle was hit by an explosive device, according to an announcement Saturday morning by the French President Emmanuel Macron.