A suicide bomber was killed during an attempted attack on Swedish peacekeepers serving with the UN's Mali mission in the central city of Timbuktu, Swedish and UN sources told AFP Tuesday. The UN's MINUSMA mission was deployed to Mali in July 2013, with around 12,000 international police and military personnel attempting to secure lawless swathes of the vast Sahel nation.
"On Monday evening a Swedish patrol on assignment in Timbuktu city was attacked by a suicide bomber," a Swedish armed forces statement said. "The soldiers were on a routine mission and were approached by an unidentified man who shortly thereafter detonated an explosive he was wearing on his body. The perpetrator died in connection with the attack," it added. The interim head of the Swedish force in Timbuktu, Major Kristian Sandahl, confirmed no Swedes were injured during the incident.