Islamist group Ansar Dine on Thursday claimed responsibility for an ambush in northeastern Mali that killed five Chadian UN peacekeepers.

"Our mujahedeens attacked... soldiers working in the international alliance against us," a senior member of the jihadist group, Nourredine Ag Mohamed, told AFP. "Many enemies" were killed, he added, without giving a precise toll.

In the attack on Wednesday, the peacekeepers came under sustained gunfire as they were escorting a convoy in Aguelhok in the Kidal region.