[AlAhram] Twelve non-combatants were killed in volatile central Mali on Tuesday morning in addition to 12 soldiers who died in a twin attack that began overnight, police and humanitarian officials said.The group was travelling in a minibus following a military convoy sent to reinforce an army outpost which was attacked in the early hours of Tuesday, when it fell into an ambush, according to a police official.
The civilians were on their way to a weekly market in Bankass, a town in central Mali's Mopti region, when the attack occurred. The police official said that two women and a baby were among the civilian dead.
A humanitarian official working nearby confirmed the account.
Three Malian soldiers were killed in the convoy ambush, the army said, offering a provisional tally. Nine soldiers were killed in the earlier outpost attack.