A massive explosion was heard near Gao in northern Mali late Saturday, hours after villagers near the city detained two youths preparing for suicide bombings.
A French military source said the blast, which went off at around 11:00 pm (2300 GMT), happened some 10 kilometres (six miles) away from the French military base at the city’s airport, but could provide no further details.
An AFP correspondent said the blast was audible from Gao, the main city in northern Mali which was only recaptured from the Islamists late last month.
At about half past midnight Sunday, French military helicopters could be heard in the air.
The city was already on edge after what is thought to have been Mali’s first suicide attack on Friday, when a young Tuareg blew himself up, slightly injuring a Malian soldier at the northern entrance to the city.
Malian troops reinforced army checkpoints with sandbags and heavy machine-guns and stepped patrols.
Then on Saturday morning, residents of a village near Gao detained two young men they said were carrying explosive belts on the road leading to the site of Friday’s attack.
The latest attacks came as reports said that the bodies of several people, including three Arab shopkeepers recently arrested by Malian troops, had been discovered in a grave in Timbuktu further to the northwest.
Agencies
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