(Adds second attack on public buses) By Abdoulaye Massalatchi NIAMEY, March 2 (Reuters) - Niger's army has killed at least five "armed bandits" in a remote Saharan region still awash with arms and notoriously lawless more than a decade after the end of a rebellion by desert nomads. Soldiers seized three vehicles, automatic rifles, munitions and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher in Thursday's clashes near Ouraren in Arlit province, 1,280 km (800 miles) northeast of the capital Niamey, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. There were no losses on the army side, the ministry said. Armed men also attacked two public buses, injuring two passengers and robbing others, late on Thursday on the road between the main regional towns of Arlit and Agadez, military sources said. Around eight passengers were briefly kidnapped. "We have started search operations and everything is being done to find these attackers. It is the work of bandits who live off the backs of others," a senior military police officer said. The dirt poor, former French colony's desert north was the scene of a rebellion in the 1990s by light-skinned ethnic Tuareg, Arab and Toubou groups demanding more autonomy from a black African-dominated government. Most groups accepted peace deals in 1995 but insecurity remains rife, with frequent acts of banditry, carjacking and kidnapping by former rebels who say they are still marginalised and accuse the government of failing to respect the accords. On Feb. 8, ex-rebel fighters attacked the town of Iferouane in the same northeast zone, killing three government soldiers. The attack was claimed by a Tuareg group calling itself the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ). The group has demanded more Tuaregs be appointed to regional civilian and military posts and that income from Niger's natural resources be more fairly shared out. Niger's government dismisses the fighters in the north as "highway bandits" and refuses to use the term "rebellion". Despite being the world's third largest producer of uranium, landlocked Niger is one of the poorest nations on earth. It also has proven oil reserves of 300 million barrels although it has not yet found a commercially viable way of getting crude south to the Gulf of Guinea or north to the Mediterranean for export. Some of the northern rebel groups have called on workers from the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC), which is prospecting in the region, to leave for their own safety. Insecurity in the Sahel region on the edge of the Sahara has become an increasing concern to the United States, which fears militant Islamic groups are using its vast ungoverned spaces as safe havens to recruit and train. U.S. Special Forces have been training armies in the region, including Niger, in intelligence sharing and fighting banditry.
