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At least three people have been killed and several others injured after a rocket attack on a U.N. peacekeeping base in Kidal in northern Mali.

At least four rockets were fired into the base in the 4am attack and a UN spokesman said there were "quite a few people" wounded.

French troops and the U.N. force are struggling to stabilise the former French colony where Islamist militants attacked a hotel in the capital on November 20 and killed 20 people.

A second terror cell has claimed responsibility for the hotel slaughter which left 19 people dead, it has been reported.

The Macina Liberation Front said it was behind the atrocity in the Radisson Blu in the capital Bamako.

The attack, which saw 170 guests and staff taken hostage, has already been claimed by The al Qaeda-linked group Al Murabitoun.

It said two men carried out the bloody attack and suggested they were both Malian, reports France 24.

Officials say it is likely one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar who leads the group was "likely" to have planned the massacre.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: reuters)

But the investigation is likely to be widened after the central Mali- based jihadist group MLF claimed it had orchestrated the shootings.

The group is said to have carried out a string of attacks on UN peacekeepers, the Malian army and local leaders since it came to prominence in January 2015.

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Northern Mali was occupied by Islamist fighters, some with links to al Qaeda, for most of 2012. They were driven out by a French-led military operation, but violence has continued.

Other West African governments are also battling Islamist militants. Boko Haram, the leading such group in the region, has this year extended its attacks from Nigeria to neighbouring states of Niger, Cameroon and Chad.