Mali Gunmen Kill 2 in Attack on Police Post in Capital

Bamako: Gunmen killed two police officers in an attack on the main bus station in the Malian capital Bamako on Wednesday, an intelligence officer said.

"They opened fire on a police post at the bus station and there are two officers killed," the source said.

Residents said the area around the bus station was cordoned off by security forces who searched cars along a main road nearby.

Militant group al-Mourabitoun, which is linked to al Qaeda, on Monday claimed responsibility for a hotel siege in central Mali at the weekend in which 17 people died.

Mali's northern region has seen a resurgence of a number of attacks by armed groups as well as Islamist militants who briefly held the area until they were scattered by a French military intervention in 2013.

Malian authorities also blame a new armed group called the Massina Liberation Front for the growing number of attacks in the central Mopti region.

The United Nations has brokered a tenuous peace between Tuareg separatists and the government. At the same time, Islamists linked to al Qaeda and new militant groups appear to be mounting a campaign against the U.N. mission and Mali's military.