Attacks in north Benin park kill 8 including French citizen

By VIRGILE AHISSOU
Associated Press

COTONOU, Benin (AP) — A Benin government spokesman says that attacks by suspected Islamic extremists in northern Benin have killed at least eight people, including army soldiers, park rangers and a French instructor. Benin government spokesman Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji said five park rangers and a French instructor were killed in an ambush Tuesday which included explosions from improvised land mines on a patrol in the north of the W National Park near the borders of neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. A second attack occurred on Thursday in which a civilian and a parks agent died. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but Islamic extremist groups with links to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have spread violence across West Africa.