He said: “He’s a young man of 25 and a Tunisian national. He has a personal hatred for France.”
The source said the man came from “a katiba”, a camp of Islamist fighters in the Sahara.
The bombing late on Wednesday appeared ill-prepared and the young man did not seem to be in control of the explosive.
The Malian security ministry said in a statement on Wednesday evening: “A foreigner exploded a gas cylinder in front of the French embassy in Bamako, lightly injuring two passers-by.
“The individual was armed with a pistol, but could not use it. He is being interrogated by police,” it said.
Bystander
A security source said on Wednesday evening that the man had been armed with an automatic pistol, a bomb and a grenade.
“I was there, the gas cylinder did not explode…it is the grenade which exploded,” a witness said.
Witnesses also reported the man fired several shots at the entrance of the embassy.
This is the first time al-Qaeda has been blamed for an attack in Bamako.
A young Mauritanian carried out a suicide bombing in August 2009 near the French embassy in Nouakchott which was claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, injuring two French gendarmes and a Mauritanian bystander.
Source: news24