Ansar Al Islam extremist group, loyal to Qaeda, claimed its responsibility for two attacks targeting two police stations on the borders between Burkina Faso and Mali.

The authorities said on Monday that unidentified armed people set the fire on a police station, while attacked another one by the machine guns. Ansar Al Islam is considered one of the extremist groups that works actively in Sahel regiol.

Mali-Burkina Faso borders witness increasing attacks from the extremist groups loyal to Qaeda, as the states of the region, including Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad, described the norther area of Mali as a background base of terrorism.

Many experts believe that the extremist groups use Mali’s northern area of Azwad as a shelter for their militants and to hide their weapons. They also target the French troops existed in the area regularly. The French military leadership said, in a statement issued this week, that they manage to prevent an attack from extremists who used explosive devices to target them.