The United Nations says gunmen have attacked a U.N. peacekeeping base in the northern Mali city of Timbuktu, killing seven people.
U.N. officials say the dead include five Malian security guards, a gendarme and a Malian contractor working for the U.N. mission.
They say six assailants were also killed by U.N. peacekeepers during the Monday afternoon attack.
The violence follows another attack on Monday in which armed men opened fire on U.N. peacekeepers and Malian troops in the central Malian town of Douentza. One peacekeeper and one Malian soldier were killed in that attack.
No one has claimed responsibility for Monday's violence, however Islamist militants frequently target the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali. More than 100 peacekeepers have been killed in Mali, making it the most deadly of the United Nations' 16 global peacekeeping operations.