Insurgents attack multiple towns in northern and central Mali, sources say

BAMAKO, July 4 - A Tuareg-led insurgent group said on Saturday it had attacked a town in northern Mali where government troops and Russian paramilitary forces are based, and residents of two other localities in northern and central Mali reported hearing gunfire and explosions.

The assault was the latest threat to the military-led government in the landlocked Sahel country where rebels staged high-profile attacks in April, hitting the airport in the capital Bamako, killing the defence minister and seizing a string of army bases in the north.

Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesperson for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), told Reuters that fighters from the group had attacked the town of Anefis in the northeastern Kidal region early Saturday morning. Government and Russian troops deployed in Anefis in the wake of the April attacks in which the FLA and the regional al Qaeda affiliate seized control of Kidal town.

In the central city of Gao, a local official said there had been gunfire and rockets launched at a military camp since before dawn on Saturday. It was not immediately clear which fighters were responsible.

A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS