The soldiers had been part of a "logistical escort mission" from the border post of Labbezanga, a statement said, adding that five "terrorists" had also been killed.

The incident followed the killing by gunmen of seven civilians in two attacks near the northeastern town of Menaka on July 11, also near the Niger border.

The area around Menaka has seen frequent clashes pitting jihadists who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group against two mainly Tuareg armed groups and soldiers of the Malian army and Barkhane, a French force.

The violence is often accompanied by atrocities against civilians, especially members of the Fulani and Tuareg ethnic groups.

Radical Islamist militias who seized the north of the former French colony in 2012 were pushed back by French troops in 2013.

But large swathes of territory remain beyond the control of Malian, French or UN forces despite a 2015 peace accord aimed at definitively isolating the jihadists.

Since then the violence has spread to the centre of the country and sometimes even further south, often exacerbating inter-ethnic tensions -- a phenomenon also seen in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.