Al-Qaida group claims attack on police station in north Mali

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) - An organization that monitors jihadi sites says al-Qaida's North Africa branch has claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.N. mission police station in northern Mali that killed one Malian soldier.

SITE Intelligence group said Saturday that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed credit for Friday's attack in a statement distributed via Twitter and Telegram. The statement said three assailants were involved, one of whom detonated a car bomb at the entrance to the police station, a former hotel in the town of Timbuktu.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has also claimed responsibility for an attack targeting a luxury hotel in Mali's capital that killed 20 people last November and an assault last month in the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso that killed 30.