The deadly clashes, involving the separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and the Moscow-run Africa Corps, follows a series of attacks on the military in recent weeks.

In a statement Friday, the FLA said it had killed several dozen members of the Africa Corps.

"Around 15 bodies were left abandoned on the site of the fighting," the statement added.

It said it had lost three fighters and suffered seven wounded during the battle.

The FLA also said it had destroyed 21 military vehicles including armoured cars and armed pick-up trucks.

Earlier, the army's general staff acknowledged in a statement that a logistics convoy had been ambushed at dawn on Friday.

And FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud told AFP earlier Friday that they had "inflicted significant material damage and human losses among the enemy."

The army statement said the battle took place in the Kidal region where the army convoy had been conducting an "offensive operation against an armed terrorist group".

It said "10 enemy combatants" had been killed.

Mali's army retook several districts from separatists in 2023, among them Kidal, a pro-independence northern bastion.

Africa Corps is the successor to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which diplomatic and security sources confirmed to AFP over the weekend has now left Mali.

The group, overseen by Moscow's defence ministry, is also actively supporting several other African governments.

"The fighters this Friday were fierce," a regional elected official told AFP.

"There were losses on both sides. But we'll have to wait for definitive figures."

Since 2012, Mali has been mired in violence carried out by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as other organisations.

The FLA was created late last year in a merger of several predominantly Tuareg groups.