Bamako--Militants shelled the largest city in restive northern Mali on Sunday, killing a woman and wounding three of her family including a toddler as they slept, hospital and security sources told AFP.
A police official in Gao said the deadly rocket strike hit a household in the north of the city, while two more landed near a clinic in the city centre and in a field to the south.
"We received four wounded by rocket fire. One person, aged 27, has died from her injuries," an official at Gao's main hospital told AFP, adding that a three-year-old was among the wounded.
"The deceased and wounded were from the same family, and all were asleep when the rocket fell into their home," a separate police source added.
MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, condemned the "terrorist attack on innocent civilians", which came six days after a Red Cross worker was killed by jihadists in Gao.
"A MINUSMA team immediately went there and assist the Malian authorities in their investigation," it said in a statement which described "at least three rockets" hitting Gao around 6:00am (0600 GMT).
The force said it had enhanced patrols in the city of around 90,000 people.
Security forces in the area were already on high alert after unidentified men on motorcycles opened fire on the village of Boni, some four hours by road southwest of Gao, on Friday, killing two civilians.
The assailants fired shots at the police station and town hall, bringing "terror to Boni", one elected local official told AFP.
The government said in a statement on Saturday a "large-scale search operation is underway throughout the area to bring these terrorists out of harm's way".
Boni and Gao are located near the border with northern Burkina Faso, where gunmen kidnapped a Romanian security officer at a mine on Saturday before fleeing with him towards Mali.
AFP
