Soldiers in Mali were caught up in deadly clashes with fighters from Al-Qaeda's north African branch in the northwest of the country, the country's defence ministry announced Monday.
Both sides recorded losses during clashes, which took place on Friday and Saturday, said the ministry statement, without giving figures.
"The armed forces are continuing pursuit operations on the ground," the statement added.
"We managed to establish a toll yesterday (Sunday)," Captain Ali Diakite of the army command at Gao, in the north, told AFP.
"There were more killed in the enemy ranks than among our men," he added.
Several local sources contacted AFP on Saturday reporting clashes between the two sides, but without mentioning casualties.
On June 17, the army said it had killed 26 "Islamist fighters" in an attack on a base belonging to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), near the border with Algeria, near Garn-Akassa.
The operation came after AQIM's May 31 announcement that it had executed Briton Edwin Dyer, one of six Western hostages kidnapped in the Sahel region in December and January.
The execution marked the first time that Al-Qaeda's north African branch had killed a Western hostage, observers said.
Dyer had been captured in January over the border in Niger along with three other tourists. While two other hostages have been freed, a Swiss national, Werner Greiner, is being held prisoner.
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