DHAKA: A bomb explosion killed several members of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali in the troubled northern city of Kidal.

A spokesman for the mission said on Saturday, reports The Straits Times.

‘There was an explosion this morning and the info I have is that there were several dead and wounded among the blue helmets,’ Fred Fath, the mission spokesman, told media.

An intelligence official in northern Mali said that the dead included two Senegalese peacekeepers. He spoke anonymously because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The car packed with explosives detonated in front of a bank guarded by the peacekeepers, he said. The explosion was so great it blew open the doors of houses in the area.

BDST: 1650 HRS, DEC 14, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor