At least 11 people, including four members of Russia’s Africa Corps, were killed in an ambush targeting a military patrol near Sofara in central Mali’s Mopti region on Monday, according to local sources. The al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility.

The sources, including a senior official from the Dan Na Ambassagou group, local community leaders and security monitors, said the attack took place in the Kaka area. They said the dead also included seven traditional hunters belonging to the group, which supports the Malian army.

JNIM released photographs it said showed victims of the attack but did not provide an overall death toll. Some sources reported a higher number of fatalities, although no official figures were available to confirm those accounts.

The ambush came a day after a Malian army drone strike in nearby Bourkouma killed a woman and her infant and wounded civilians, according to local sources cited by Radio France Internationale.

Some of those sources suggested the ambush was retaliation for the strike, but that connection has not been independently established.

Neither the Malian army nor Russia’s Africa Corps had commented on the ambush or the reported casualties in Bourkouma, according to the information available.

In a separate statement, the Malian army announced the destruction of what it described as an “important base” near Bougouni, along with other armed-group positions, without addressing the events in Kaka or Bourkouma.