By BABA AHMED Associated Press

An attack Thursday on a convoy in northern Mali killed six United Nations peacekeepers and wounded five others, the U.N. said. All of the victims were from Burkina Faso.

The mission in Mali is one of the deadliest for the U.N., with 42 peacekeepers killed and 166 wounded since it was established in April 2013. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon quickly condemned the latest violence.

The convoy was attacked in the morning about 45 kilometers (27 miles) south of Timbuktu while patrolling on the road between Goundam and Timbuktu, the mission said. Reinforcements were being sent to the attack site, including helicopters for air support.

It was unclear who staged the attack, but Tuareg camp residents in the area said they saw a jihadist flag on the attackers' vehicles.

The Mauritanian Al-Akhbar news agency reported that al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility and said it killed seven peacekeepers. The agency regularly carries credible claims of responsibility by jihadist groups. The reason for the discrepancy between the number killed and the number the group claimed to have killed was not immediately clear.

"Those responsible for this heinous crime must be identified and brought to justice as soon as possible," said the U.N.'s Mali envoy, Mongi Hamdi.

Northern Mali has been engulfed in conflict for years. A French-led military intervention launched in 2013 scattered the Islamic extremists who had taken the north, though the region remains insecure. In recent months, violence has extended farther south.

Earlier this month, Mali's main coalition of Tuareg separatist rebels signed a peace agreement with the government.

The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, Danish Maj. Gen. Michael Lollesgaard, told the Security Council earlier this month that his force is not geared to operate somewhere troops face attacks from hostile jihadist groups and others.