(adds details of prisoners) By Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Suspected Tuareg gunmen seized a military supply convoy in northern Mali taking 23 soldiers hostage, the latest sign of a concerted campaign with Tuareg rebels in neighbouring Niger, military sources said on Tuesday. In the second attack in two days, a group of heavily armed men in Toyota pick-ups ambushed the convoy on Monday some 50 km (31 miles) from the town of Tinsawatene in Mali's desolate northern reaches near the border with Algeria. After a gunbattle lasting several hours, the attackers captured a Toyota pick up, a lorry containing supplies, and large quantities of munitions. Six soldiers were able to escape. "We're in shock. It was a heavy toll," said a senior Defence Ministry source. "Now it's a man hunt. We will spare no effort to find these men." Military sources said several attackers were killed in the gunfight. It came a day after suspected Tuareg rebels captured 15 Malian soldiers in a remote Saharan town and carried them off toward Niger, where nomadic tribesmen are waging a seven-month old uprising. The mountainous area where Sunday's abductions took place is regarded as a stronghold of Tuareg leader Ibrahima Bahanga, whom Malian authorities accuse of killing a gendarme in an attack in May backed by rebels from the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ). "We are obliged to work closely with Niger because we believe there are links between the two groups," said the senior defence source. "When they launch attacks in Niger they seek refuge in Mali, and when they attack in Mali they hide in Niger." "There are contacts under way between military authorities in Mali and Niger to secure the area," the source added. REGIONAL EFFORTS Last week, Mali and Niger's security ministers met in the eastern Malian town of Gao and signed a deal allowing each others' security forces to pursue suspected bandits across their common border. Bahanga, one of the leaders of a Tuareg revolt in the 1990s which won greater autonomy for the light-skinned tribesmen in Mali and Niger, has been disowned by a broader Malian rebel alliance, which signed a deal with President Amadou Toumani Toure in July 2006. Toure, during a weekend visit to Tripoli, said he had agreed with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to hold a regional summit on security in the Sahel. Niger President Mamadou Tandja has also appealed for regional support in quelling the uprising, which his government has accused French nuclear power company Areva <CEPFi.PA> and "rich foreign powers" of supporting. The company has strongly denied this. Niger's government said on Tuesday it had demined and reopened the road between the northern uranium mining hub of Arlit and the oasis town of Iferouane, which lies more than 1,000 km (600 miles) from the capital Niamey and has been isolated for more than two months. A military convoy was able to deliver 60 tonnes of emergency food aid to the settlement, which lies in the heart of the rebel zone and was the scene of its first attack in February. (Additional reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey)
