TIMBUKTU/BAMAKO: Malian troops backed by UN helicopters stormed a UN police base in the city of Timbuktu and recaptured it from suspected militants who had seized it hours before on Friday, the United Nations said.

Malian Defense Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly told reporters that an army commander was killed in the rescue operation as well as three of the attackers, whom he called terrorists but did not identify. A fourth assailant blew himself up while others were being sought, he added.

The incident followed a series of bold attacks by Al-Qaeda militants in West Africa, including a hotel siege in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou last month in which 30 people including many foreigners were killed.

A group of around six militants drove up to the UN base in the former Hotel Palmeraie at the entrance to Timbuktu at dawn and detonated a car bomb before holing up inside, security sources said. A gunbattle ensued.

“It’s over now,” said UN mission spokesman Olivier Salgado. “They are now inspecting the site and looking for explosive devices.” The former hotel had been taken over exclusively by a Nigerian UN police contingent. Security sources said a Malian Army checkpoint in the city had also come under fire.

Mission spokesman Olivier Salgado said that one person who was injured has been transferred to a health care facility. He said there were not many police at the camp because they are moving the headquarters closer to the airport.

The Malian Army and UN forces are now fighting the other attackers. Shots were still being heard in the area, a source in the UN peacekeeping force in Mali (MINUSMA) told AFP, indicating hours-long fighting.

Idrissa Dicko, who lives near the camp, said the ground shook, and his windows broke during his morning prayers.

The attackers drove up to the entrance of the UN base in the former Hotel Palmeraie at around 6:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) and then detonated their vehicle, said Olivier Salgado, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA.

“An unknown number of assailants have withdrawn inside the camp. An operation is currently under way with Malian and MINUSMA forces,” he said, adding that an injured police officer had been evacuated.

“Six to seven terrorists arrived very early in the morning at a MINUSMA camp in Timbuktu. They blew up their vehicle before attacking the camp with mortars,” the source said.

“One peacekeeper from Niger was wounded.” the source said, adding that the camp had recently been evacuated by blue helmets from Niger but some soldiers had remained there.

A Malian military source said Malian troops were “fighting to neutralise the terrorists.”

A military source in Timbuktu said the site, near the entrance to the city, had been taken over exclusively by a Nigerian police contingent, and there were no other residents as the hotel was no longer operational.

He could not say whether there were any UN personnel inside the site with the attackers. Salgado said it had been empty at the time of the attack, barring a few guards.

Simultaneously, a Malian army checkpoint in the Kabara neighborhood near the airport was attacked by gunmen. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

Militants, who briefly held the city of Timbuktu in 2012 until French forces drove them out, have stepped up attacks in Mali in recent months as part of a growing regional insurgency.

Last month, Al-Qaeda fighters seized a Swiss missionary living there and set conditions for her release. Rebel fighters occupied Mali’s north in 2012, but were pushed out of strongholds by French-led forces in 2013. Attacks in the region continue and have pushed further south.

A Malian soldier was killed last month in an ambush on the outskirts of Timbuktu in continuing violence in the sprawling arid north of the country.

Northern Mali fell under the control of Tuareg rebels and jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012.

The militants sidelined the Tuareg to take sole control but were largely ousted by a French-led military operation in January 2013.

But insurgents wrecked 14 of Timbuktu’s iconic earthen shrines built during its 15th and 16th century golden age as an economic, intellectual and spiritual centre.

They considered the shrines, as well as priceless ancient manuscripts, to be idolatrous.

Large swathes of Mali remain lawless however despite a June peace deal between the former Tuareg rebels and rival pro-government armed groups.