Up to 500 armed Tuaregs who fought for Gaddafi in Libya sought refuge in Mali late last year as his regime crumbled, raising concerns that their presence would reignite separatist uprisings in the Sarahan desert.
Fighters launched attacks around the northern towns of Aguelhok and Tessalit up by the border with Algeria early on Wednesday, a day after rebels tried to seize the town of Menaka, prompting fierce clashes with Malian government forces who used combat helicopters to push them back.
“The group that attacked Menaka split into two, with some of them heading to Aguelhok. There have been clashes between them and the army with heavy weapons since 4.00 a.m. this morning,” said one military official by telephone.
The official said the other group of rebels headed further north towards the town of Tessalit but had been intercepted on the way and that fighting continued there too.
At least one Malian soldier and several assailants were killed on Tuesday in the fighting around Menaka before the rebels were repelled by the army, the government said.
The Defence Ministry said on Tuesday former Libyan soldiers and Tuareg rebels under the name the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) were behind the Menaka assault.
Northern Mali, a remote desert zone 1,000 km (630 miles) up the winding Niger river from the capital Bamako, has a long history of uprisings by nomadic rebels who pay scant attention to state boundaries with Niger, Algeria and Libya.