By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Tuareg rebels fired on a U.S. military plane flying food supplies to Malian troops fighting desert insurgents in the far north of the African country, Malian officials said on Thursday.

U.S. officials said the U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules was hit by small arms fire early on Wednesday while resupplying a Malian army garrison in the Tin-Zaouatene border region, where the rebels have staged raids in recent weeks.

The aircraft returned safely to the capital and the U.S. embassy in Bamako denied a report by Malian officials that a U.S. serviceman had been injured.

"Shots were fired at the plane ... It was a resupply drop of food done to help our partner nation. There was minimal damage and they were able to successfully complete the mission and arrive safe and sound back at Bamako," a U.S. embassy spokesperson told Reuters.

Malian officials blamed the attack on Tuareg fighters led by insurgent leader Ibrahima Bahanga who in recent weeks have carried out several raids and ambushes around Tin-Zaouatene, a desolate northern mountain region bordering Algeria and Niger.

Washington views Mali as a staunch ally in its global war on terrorism and its forces regularly train Malian troops.

But it was believed to be the first time that the U.S. military had helped resupply an ongoing Malian military operation against Tuareg insurgents operating in the north.

"It's not something that we're doing regularly ... At the request of the Malian government, we carried out a resupply," Major John Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S. European Command, which also covers Africa, told Reuters by phone.

OPERATION FLINTLOCK

The incident followed a joint exercise in the Malian desert, code-named Operation Flintlock, involving U.S. troops and the armies of several Sahel states, aimed at countering the threat of terrorism and Islamic militancy in the region.

"We had the plane in country ... The Malians provided the food (for the resupply)," the embassy spokesperson said.

Mali's armed forces have been hunting Bahanga's fighters after the recent attacks in which the insurgents took several dozen soldiers prisoner and seized vehicles and ammunition. The government also blames them for laying mines which have killed at least 13 people.

Mali had appealed for international help to counter the rebel raids.

Dorrian would not rule out further U.S. resupply flights for the Malian army. "It is normal for us to receive requests from allies ... we help when we can," he said.

Tuareg rebels over the border in neighbouring Niger have also carried out raids on military posts, and officials from both countries see links between the two insurgencies.

The rebel Tuareg-led Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) said on its Website on Thursday it would halt attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starting at the end of this week. But its forces would respond if attacked, it added.

The nomadic light-skinned Tuaregs in northern Niger and Mali, who staged an uprising in the former French colonies in the 1990s, have long complained of being marginalised by black-dominated governments ruling far away in the south.

They demand more autonomy and a greater share in their region's wealth. But the Niger and Malian governments have dismissed them as renegades and bandits involved in arms- and drugs-trafficking. (Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher)

AlertNet news is provided by