UN peacekeepers ( FILE PHOTO)

Insurgents killed three United Nations soldiers and injured three others in northern Mali, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali  (MINUSMA) said on Friday.

MINUSMA in a statement said the peacekeepers, stationed in the volatile West African nation to counter terrorism, were attacked on Thursday outside the UN camp in the town of Kidal.

The mission said the attackers also launched dozens of shells of different calibers at the camp, injuring five soldiers.

The attack comes eight days after rebels fired five shells at the airport of the historic northern town of Timbuktu, injuring five French soldiers.

A French military intervention in January 2013 turned back a jihadist and separatist insurgency in Mali’s north, but various Islamist groups still stage attacks.

(dpa/NAN)