Seven killed, including two police, in Mali border attack

Four civilians, two Malian police officers and a customs official were killed in an attack on a border post on Mali's frontier with Burkina Faso, security sources and government officials said Monday.

"Armed men attacked the border post at Kouri on Sunday night," a local policeman said, who asked not to be identified.

"Two gendarmes, a customs officer and four civilians, including two Ghanaians, were killed." Another security source confirmed the toll and said the two Ghanaians were lorry drivers.

"The assailants arrived on three motorbikes and in a car," the source said. "They fired at the gendarmes, the customs officers and the civilian truck drivers." "Right now, we can't confirm who the attackers were. They arrived in Kouri from two directions," a government official said. "We were told that they took the soldiers' boots as they left."