Tuareg rebels in northern Niger killed 15 government soldiers in an attack on a Saharan military outpost on Friday, one of their biggest raids yet in a region where foreign firms are exploring for uranium and oil.
The rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) said it had attacked two army companies in a raid on Tazerzait, a remote settlement around a well near the Algerian and Malian borders, killing 15 soldiers, injuring 43 and taking 72 prisoners.
"The MNJ has just carried out a major offensive around Tazerzait to respond to the crimes committed by the Niger Armed Forces in northern Niger," the group said on its Website.
It said government forces - which it sarcastically dubs the "Tandjaouide militia" after President Mamadou Tandja and the pro-government Janjaweed fighters in Sudan's Darfur region - had killed innocent civilians in a crackdown in the north.