Al-Qaeda linked suicide bombers have struck on two separate locations in the Republic of Niger killing 20 people while leaving many injured.

Both attacks were carried out as people prepared for early morning prayers known as Fajir just after 05:00 local time (04:00 GMT).

Local reporters say a military camp and a French-run uranium mine in two towns in north-west of the country were the target of the terrorists.

A bomb at a barracks in Agadez killed 19, including 18 soldiers while four terrorists died in the attack and a passbyer.

The attack on the French-run Somair mine, in the town of Arlit, killed one person and injured 14, its operator told local reporters.

Local reporters say militant leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar was behind the attacks according to rumors making rounds in the country.

These rumors were substantiated by the Mauritanian news agency Alakhbar as it quoted a spokesman for the militants as saying: “It was Belmokhtar who himself supervised the operational plans of attacks.”

Another spokesman for the militants was quoted as saying that the attacks were targeted at the enemies of Islam in the Islamic Maghreb.

“We attacked France and Niger because of its co-operation with France, in the war against Islam, we will intensify our attacks’’.

The Niger Defence Minister Mahamadou Karidjo said insurgents had driven a car bomb into the military base and detonated the bomb. 18 soldiers died, 4 militants and two other civilian were hit while dozen others of the military suffered injuries, the defence minister stressed further.

He added that the government has declared three days of mourning for those who died in the attack including the military personnel and the civilians.

The Interior Minister Abdou Labo put the number of people wounded at the uranium site at about 50 in that attack alone.

Militants in the Islamic Maghreb have increase in recent years with some blaming them for taking part in the Mali conflict.

Last month, Militants in the Islamic Maghreb called for support from those in West Africa to intensify their activities in Africa.

But French President Francois Hollande vowed to protect his nation’s interests and co-operate with Niger in its fight against terrorism in the Islamic Maghreb.

France intervene in the Mali conflict to prevent what it described as preventing militants from destabilizing other nations in West Africa.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

[adrotate banner=”63″]