File picture from May of the G5 Sahel headquarters in Sevare, central Mali.(Photo: AFP)
The Malian headquarters of an anti-terror task force, the G5 Sahel, came under attack on Friday, killing six people and leaving many injured, according to a provisional toll.
A suicide bomber tried to penetrate the base at Sevare in central Mali, according to a security source, while a local orange seller, Haoussa Haidara, said "there was a huge blast" followed by exchanges of gunfire.
Sounds of gunfire could still be heard an hour later.
It is the first attack on the headquarters of the joint force, set up in 2017 to roll back jihadist insurgents and criminal groups in the vast, unstable Sahel region.
It came three days before a meeting in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott between French President Emmanuel Macron and the heads of the G5 Sahel states to discuss progress made by the force.
Six people were killed in the attack, according to a hospital and a military source, giving an interim toll.
"We transported the bodies and the injured to the hospital, but we don't know whether some of the injured have died in hospital. There are six dead on the ground," the military source told AFP.
Residents in Sevare hid inside their homes, according to Bouba Bathily, a trader who sheltered from the gunfire in his house.
Launched with French backing in 2017, the G5 Sahel aims at pooling 5,000 troops from five nations -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
It was projected to be fully up and running in March, but its deployment has faced delays and equipment worries.
France intervened militarily in Mali in 2013 to help government forces drive Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists out of the north.
But large tracts of the country remain lawless despite a peace accord signed with ethnic Tuareg leaders in mid-2015 aimed at isolating the jihadists. The violence has also spilled over into both Burkina Faso and Niger.
Earlier Friday, French military headquarters said that troops from its so-called Barkhane mission in Mali had killed or captured 15 jihadists on June 22 in a joint operation with local forces.
The clash took place in a woodland area of the Inabelbel region, southeast of Timbuktu, it said in a statement.
A group of about 20 jihadists were attacked using helicopters and jet fighter support after they were spotted by Malian commandos, it said.