Two UN peacekeepers and a civilian were killed and 14 others were injured in a rocket attack Saturday on a UN base in the northeastern Malian town of Kidal, UN and local sources said.

Two UN peacekeepers and a civilian were killed and 14 others were injured in a rocket attack Saturday on a UN base in the northeastern Malian town of Kidal, UN and local sources said.

"Our camp in Kidal was attacked early this morning by terrorists using rockets," said an official from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA), adding that two Guinean UN peacekeepers and a civilian contractor were killed. A local official confirmed the report.

Another UN source said 14 others were injured in the attack, including three seriously.

The attack came eight days after a siege at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako, in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.

Armed men held around 170 guests and staff hostage in the November 20 siege that lasted about nine hours before Malian and international forces stormed the hotel to free the captives.

Two separate extremist groups claimed responsibility for the hotel assault: the Al-Murabitoun group, an Al-Qaeda affiliate led by notorious one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and the Macina Liberation Front (LWF) from central Mali.

Mali has been torn apart by unrest since the north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012.