20100920
reuters

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mauritanian aircraft attacking suspected al Qaeda insurgents in Mali at the weekend killed two civilians, a Malian defence source said on Monday, days after kidnappers crossed into Mali with seven foreigners abducted in Niger.

The kidnappers, suspected of being al Qaeda fighters, seized seven mining company staff from Arlit in northern Niger last Thursday, five French, one Togolese and one from Madagascar. On Friday they were seen crossing the desert border into Mali.

Their abduction is part of an intensifying struggle between Saharan countries and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), in which France and Spain, whose citizens have been among those kidnapped, are also involved.

Two months ago French and Mauritanian forces killed six fighters from al Qaeda's north African wing in the Malian desert during an effort to free a French hostage the group was holding. Al Qaeda said it later killed the hostage.

"(Mauritania) asked us if it could operate on our territory and we said yes ... but there have been civilian victims, which is regrettable, deplorable," a senior Malian military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday of the weekend raid.

Two people were killed during air raids, he said, without saying where the attack took place.

Niger, Mali's western neighbour, has invited the French military into its airspace and territory, a source close to the government said on Sunday, a new step in the fight against AQIM

.

About 100 French anti-terrorism specialists have arrived in Niamey, Niger's capital, aboard reconnaissance aircraft, the source added. Arlit is close to the site of uranium mining operations that are the mainstay of Niger's economy.