DAKAR, June 9 (Reuters) - At least one United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others seriously injured when their patrol was attacked in northern Mali on Friday, the peacekeeping mission MINUSMA said. MINUSMA said on Twitter the patrol first encountered an improvised explosive device and was then hit with a direct fire attack. It did not name perpetrators but said it was a "complex attack" and that updates on casualties would follow. Islamist militants, some with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, have been waging an insurgency in northern Mali since they hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in 2012. At least 303 MINUSMA personnel have been killed in hostile acts in Mali since the start of the mission in 2013, making it the deadliest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world.

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Persons: MINUSMA, Sofia Christensen, Toby Chopra, Sriraj Organizations: United Nations peacekeeper, Twitter, Islamic, United Nations, Thomson Locations: DAKAR, Mali, Ber, Tombouctou, al Qaeda, Islamic State, Sahel