admin
said Malian troops were fighting Islamist rebels.
It comes a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a checkpoint at a northern entrance to the town — the second such attack in two days.
Gao was retaken just over two weeks ago by French and Malian forces, who supposedly drove out the Islamists.
Security had reportedly been tightened in the wake of the suicide bombings, with military patrols stepped up and checkpoints put in place.
It is not yet known which group was involved in yesterday’s clashes.
However, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) has said it was behind the suicide attack on Friday, which injured a soldier at the same checkpoint hit on Saturday, and threatened more.
“We are dedicating ourselves to carrying out more attacks against France and its allies. We ask the local population to stay far away from military zones and avoid explosions,” spokesman Abou Walid Sahraoui said.
Residents of Gao and a correspondent for the AFP news agency said the gunfire in the town centre was the result of a battle between Islamist militants and Malian forces deployed near the central police station.
There was no immediate comment from the Malian and French militaries. On Friday, a young Tuareg man riding a motorcycle detonated an explosive belt at the checkpoint, killing only himself and wounding a soldier, according to reports. Mujao claimed responsibility for the attack against the Malian soldiers “who chose the side of the miscreants, the enemies of Islam,” the reports said.
The Mujao as well as other rebel groups took advantage of a military coup in the distant capital Bamako on March 22, 2012 to sweep through northern Mali. Fears of suicide bombing attacks have been high since the discovery of industrial-strength explosives in Gao earlier this week.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday that the armed groups and terrorist elements in Mali that fled amid French troops’ offensive might come back and stage reprisal attacks, although the French operations there so far have been effective and successful.
France intervened in its former colony on Jan. 11, after the Islamic militants began pushing south, raising alarm that they were inching closer toward the capital. Moreover, a gunfight in Bamako between rival factions of the Malian army on Friday exposed the weakness and division of Mali’s military.
Government troops exchanged fire with paratroopers loyal to former President Amadou Toumani Toure, who was ousted in the March 2012 coup, as they fired into the air to protest an order deploying them elsewhere.
Two people were killed and 13 others injured in the confrontation at the 33rd camp of the Djicoroni paratroopers brigade, who are commonly known as the red berets, the government said in a statement. — bbc.co.uk/Xinhua.
Online Reporter