Officials: 1 UN soldier wounded by mine in Mali

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A United Nations vehicle securing an airstrip in northern Mali drove over a mine and a soldier with the U.N. force was seriously wounded, said a U.N. official.

Earlier Wednesday, a plane carrying U.N. officials and European ambassadors landed at the strip in the city of Kidal. When the blast happened, the delegation was already in town.

The soldier seriously wounded is from Guinea, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the U.N. force securing Mali, who corrected an earlier report that the injured soldier was Chadian.

Northern Mali was overrun in 2012 by several rebel groups, including al-Qaida-linked extremists. Kidal has repeatedly come under attack even following the rebels' ouster by a French-led military operation last year. Kidal also the stronghold of separatist Tuareg rebels.