Article snippet: NIAMEY, Niger — Gunmen on motorcycles and pickup trucks killed 13 soldiers and wounded five others in an attack on their base in western Niger, security authorities said on Saturday. The village is near the border with Mali, and a few dozen miles from where militants killed four American soldiers in an ambush on Oct. 4 that has thrown a spotlight on a United States counterterrorism mission in Niger, a country that straddles an expanse of the Sahara. Niger’s military officials confirmed the attack. The assailants had come across the border from Mali and drove about another 25 miles to the village of Ayorou before springing their attack, the security authorities said. "They were heavily armed,” said a security official on the scene. “They had rocket launchers and machine guns. They came in four vehicles each with about seven fighters.” One of the assailants was killed in an exchange of fire but others managed to make off with four Nigerian Army vehicles, the official said. Military reinforcements later arrived and stopped them as they tried to return to Mali, setting off a gun battle. The attackers escaped into Mali and were being pursued, the security official said. A statement from Niger’s military, confirming the death toll, said: “Land and air forces are pursuing the assailants with a view to neutralizing them.” Since taking over swaths of northern Mali in 2012, and then being scattered by a French-led counteroffensive the following year, Islamist militants hav... Link to the full article to read more