The first attacks were carried out by Boko Haram militants based across the border with Nigeria in the southeast. Jihadists allied with the Islamic State group (IS) in the west near Mali have also become involved.

Here are some of the other major attacks in Niger.

- 2019 -

- July 1: Attackers detonate suicide vehicles then open fire, killing 18 soldiers at the Inates army base in the remote southwestern Tillaberi region on the border with Mali -- the same site that was attacked on Tuesday.

Boko Haram's IS-backed faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), claims responsibility.

- May 14: Heavily armed attackers ambush a military patrol in the same region, killing 28 soldiers.

The patrol was tracking men who had the previous day tried to raid the high-security Koutoukale prison which holds the country's most dangerous detainees, including jihadists.

IS claims both attacks.

- 2017 -

- February 22: Fifteen soldiers are killed and 19 wounded in an attack by "terrorist elements" against a patrol in the western Ouallam area near Mali.

- October 4: A joint patrol of Nigerian troops and US special forces is ambushed near the border with Mali by about 50 men from the group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.

Four Americans and five Nigerians are killed.

- 2016 -

- October 6: Twenty-two soldiers are killed in a daytime attack blamed on jihadists against a refugee camp in the western Tahoua region.

- June 3: Hundreds of Boko Haram fighters attack a military post in the town of Bosso in the far southeast near the border with Nigeria, killing 26 soldiers.

Several civilians also die, and the jihadists control the town until army reinforcements arrive the next day. Around 50 attackers are killed.

- 2015 -

- November 25: Eighteen villagers are killed and 100 homes torched in a nighttime attack by Boko Haram fighters on the village of Wogom, near Bosso. Three people, including the village imam, have their throats slit.

- September 25: At least 15 civilians are killed in a raid on a village on the banks of the Komadougou Yobe river that forms the border with Nigeria.

- July 15: At least 16 people are killed near Bosso in an attack blamed on Boko Haram fighters. Days later the army says it has killed 32 fighters in a counterattack.

- June 18: Boko Haram attacks the villages of Lamana and Ngouamo near the border with Nigeria, killing 38 people, most of them women and children. They set fire to more than 100 homes.

- April 25: Boko Haram fighters attack an army post on Karamga island on Lake Chad, killing 46 Niger soldiers and 28 civilians.