NIAMEY, Niger, May 23 (UPI) -- Security officials in Niger are on the lookout for assailants tied to the bombing Thursday of a military camp, Niger Defense Minister Mahamadou Karidjo said.
Karidjo said a car bomb was detonated at a military base in Agadez in central Niger, near the site of a French mining operation. Authorities in Niger told the BBC that several attackers died in the attack, though a fifth insurgent was holding military officials hostage.
"There is at least one remaining assailant that we are trying to capture," the defense minister said.
At least 19 people, most of them soldiers, were killed in the attack.
The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, an affiliate of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, took responsibility for the bombing.
AQIM operates in much of the central region of Africa known as the Sahel. It's been fighting alongside nomadic Tuareg rebels in northern Mali, to Niger's east.
Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou said security in Agadez was increased following January attacks in Algeria.
The International Committee of the Red Cross this week said it was working in southern Niger to help people displaced from Nigeria by fighting between al-Qaida ally Boko Haram and Nigerian forces.
