Officials say it was lucky no one was killed as finger pointed at Mali extremists over simultaneous car-bomb explosions

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Attackers in Niger detonated two car bombs on Thursday, one in the city of Agadez where a military barracks was targeted and one in Arlit, where a French company operates a uranium mine, injuring more than a dozen people.

Paris-based nuclear giant Areva said in a statement that 13 employees were hurt in the attack in Arlit, in the northern part of Niger where in 2010 al-Qaida's branch in Africa kidnapped five French citizens working for the mining company.

Witnesses said the vehicle carrying the explosives in Agadez blew up in front of a military barracks.

"We heard a strong detonation that woke the whole neighbourhood, it was so powerful," said Abdoulaye Harouna, a resident of Agadez. "The whole town is now surrounded by soldiers looking for the attackers."

In 2010, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb kidnapped seven foreigners, including five French nationals, from a residential compound near Arlit. They worked for Areva or contracting companies.

In February 2011, three of the hostages including one Frenchwoman were freed. The cell is still holding the other four and has repeatedly threatened to kill them in retaliation for the French-led assault in Mali.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, but because Niger shares a border with Mali, whose north was occupied for nearly a year by a trio of al-Qaida-linked groups, residents and government officials assume the attackers were Islamic extremists, possibly from the Movement of Oneness and Jihad in west Africa, which has led repeated suicide attacks.

The militants vowed to hit any country that helped France, which launched a military offensive in Mali on 11 January to flush out the jihadists.

Niger, like most nations in the region, has sent battalions of soldiers to try to stabilise Mali. If the attack was carried out by one of the Mali-based groups, it would be the single largest attack they have carried out.

In recent weeks they attempted to carry out a similar style assault, with kamikaze fighters detonating themselves in the Malian towns of Gossi and Menaka, but the attackers killed only themselves.