BAMAKO, Mali — At least 18 people have been killed in an airstrike in northern Mali, a separatist group said. The army said it had mounted an attack targeting armed militants.

The Collective for the Defence of the Rights of the Azawad People, which is part of a Tuareg separatist coalition, said Monday the Malian army bombed a market 50 km (30 miles) north of Lerneb, in the Timbuktu region.

Seven people were also injured in the strike on Sunday, the group said in a statement, denouncing a “barbaric act from another age” and a “flagrant human rights violation.”

Mali’s army said Monday in a statement on X it carried out air strikes on a “refuge” in the same area cited by the separatist group, killing 11 “terrorists.”

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russian mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Since seizing power in 2021, Col. Assimi Goita has struggled to curb violence in central and northern Mali, while the army has has been accused of targeting civilians.

Last month, the Front for the Liberation of Azawad, the coalition of Tuareg separatist groups, accused the Malian army and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group of “coldly executing” at least 24 people in northern Mali.

Last year, the rights group Human Rights Watch said in a report the army and Russian mercenaries killed at least 32 civilians, including seven in a drone strike, kidnapped four others, and burned at least 100 homes in towns and villages in central and northern Mali between May and December.