The Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group said it ambushed a group of Wagner soldiers on Saturday as they rode motorcycles in the Bandiagara region from the village of Djallo toward the mountains, the group said in statement, Arab News reported.
According to the statement, the terrorists killed four of the Russian group while the rest fled.
Two local elected officials confirmed the incident to AFP, while a senior Malian army official refused to confirm or deny it.
“Four Russians were killed over the weekend by terrorists near Bandiagara,” one of the local officials, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
A hospital source in the region also confirmed the “death in combat of four Russians,” adding that one had “passed through Mopti hospital.”
Russia has become a close ally of Mali’s ruling junta in its fight against a long-running terrorist insurgency.
The country has brought in Russian paramilitary fighters, described by Bamako as military instructors, to support the beleaguered armed forces.
RHM/PR
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