Nigeria: Military operations were underway on Thursday near Niger`s border with Mali the day after an attack by unidentified assailants which killed three members of the U.S. Army Special Forces and five Nigerien soldiers, security sources said.


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The attack, which also wounded two US soldiers, took place during a routine patrol in a part of southwestern Niger where there are known to be insurgents, including from al Qaeda in Islamic (AQIM), a U.S. official told Reuters.


Nigerien, US and French troops were conducting military operations in the zone on Thursday, a Nigerien security source said without providing additional details.


An official at Mali`s defence ministry said military operations were taking place within Niger and that Malian forces had reinforced their checkpoints along the border. 


According to a Nigerien diplomatic source, those who carried out Wednesday`s attack came from Mali.


Jihadist groups form part of a growing regional insurgency in the poor, sparsely populated deserts of West Africa`s Sahel. They have stepped up attacks on U.N. peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and civilian targets after being driven back in northern Mali by a French-led military intervention in 2013. 


Malian militant groups have expanded their reach into neighbouring countries, including Niger, where a series of attacks by armed groups led the government in March to declare a state of emergency in the southwest. 


A relatively new militant group called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has also claimed some recent attacks.