Mali blast claims lives of two UN peacekeepers

UNITED NATIONS, June 04 (AP):Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed Friday when their armored personnel carrier hit an improvised explosive device in central Mali in the sixth incident in less than two weeks targeting the U.N. mission in the West African nation that has faced a decade-long Islamic insurgency.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the device that killed the Egyptian peacekeepers and wounded one other was planted on a road outside the town of Douentza in the Mopti region.
Their APC was escorting a civilian convoy and was on its way from Douentza to Timbuktu when it hit the device, he said.
"The intent is to disrupt the lives of the Malian people, to disrupt transport, to disrupt security," Dujarric said. "These roads are used by civilians, civilian trucks, civilian buses, but also by the security forces, whether it's the Malian army or U.N. peacekeepers … (who) have been victims over and over again of improvised explosive devices."
It was the sixth incident in which a U.N. peacekeeping mission convoy was hit since May 22 and the second fatal attack on a convoy this week, the U.N. spokesman said.