ABC News reported that local human rights activists and a separatist group say Mali's military killed at least 13 civilians in a drone strike earlier this week near the Mauritania border. The report, published under a headline that also states the army said it targeted militants, lays out two competing accounts of the same strike, according to the ABC News report on the strike.
ABC News attributed the toll of at least 13 civilians to the activists and the separatist group. The summary available for this story does not say how those groups gathered their information or whether they were able to reach the site.
The army's account, as ABC News reported it, is that the strike was aimed at militants. The summary does not say whether the army disputed the civilian toll, named the militants it said were targeted, or gave a count of people killed.
The two accounts differ on the central point. The activists and the separatist group describe civilian deaths, while the army describes a militant target. The report does not say which account has been independently verified, and the summary does not say whether ABC News sought further comment from the army or the activists.
The location is given only as near the Mauritania border. The summary does not name a town or a specific site, and it gives no day for the strike beyond the phrase "earlier this week" used in ABC News's reporting.
Several basic questions remain unanswered in the material available for this story, including the identities of those said to have been killed and any response beyond the army's statement that it targeted militants.
Sources: ABC News: Mali drone strike kills 13 civilians, activists say; army says it targeted militants.