BAMAKO, May 11 (Reuters) - Tuareg rebels in Mali, accompanied by Tuaregs from neighbouring Niger, attacked a northeast police post on Friday, the first such attack since a peace deal with the government last year, military sources said.

The assault against the gendarmerie post at Tin-Za, north of the town of Kidal and just 3 km (2 miles) from the Algerian border, was led by Ibrahim Bahanga, a well-known Malian Tuareg insurgent chief, the sources, who asked not to be named, added.

There were no immediate details of casualties.

Mali's army had sent reinforcements from the Saharan trading town of Kidal, located in a northeast region which experienced a fresh insurgency a year ago by Tuareg fighters including Bahanga, following earlier rebellions in the 1960s and 1990s.

The government of Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure signed a July 4 peace deal with the Tuareg rebels in Algiers last year. The light-skinned Tuaregs have long demanded greater autonomy from a black African-dominated government more than 1,000 km (620 miles) away in the capital Bamako.

It was not immediately clear why Tuareg fighters from neighbouring Niger, who have stepped up attacks in their own country in recent weeks, had joined in the raid on the Malian police post. Tuaregs in Niger attacked a French-run uranium mine in the north of that country last month, killing a soldier.

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