U.N. peacekeeper killed in rocket attack on northern Mali base

BAMAKO (Reuters) - At least one United Nations peacekeeper was killed on Tuesday when a joint French-U.N. military camp in the northern Malian town of Kidal was hit by rocket fire, the U.N. mission said.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack but Islamist insurgents operating in Mali's north have stepped up attacks on foreign forces in recent weeks. Nine U.N. peacekeepers were killed in an ambush last Friday.

Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the U.N. force, known as MINUSMA, said between six and eight rockets been fired at the camp.

"One MINUSMA soldier was killed in the attack," Salgado said, without giving details on the nationality of the peacekeeper. There were no immediate reports of casualties among the French forces from the rocket fire.

U.N. peacekeepers have deployed across Mali's north in an effort to secure the country after the separatists and Islamist rebels took advantage of the power vacuum created by a coup in the capital in 2012 to seize the northern regions.

The Islamists were scattered by French forces early last year and elections have since been held. But there has been a marked increase in attacks in recent months as France moved its focus away from Mali towards a regional security mission.

(Reporting by Adama Diarra; Additional reporting by Bate Felix and David Lewis in Dakar; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Dominic Evans)