By Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Suspected Tuareg rebels routed a military patrol in Mali's desolate far north, leaving several soldiers missing and seizing five vehicles, in their third major attack this week in the landlocked West African state.

The ambush took place late on Wednesday near Tinsawatene in Mali's mountain region near the northern border with Algeria and Niger, scene of two attacks earlier this week in which 38 soldiers were taken hostage.

Another military patrol was able to recover nine of those prisoners earlier on Wednesday when they were abandoned by a group of armed men who fled toward the border with Niger.

Tuareg-led rebels have killed more than 45 soldiers in a seven-month uprising. But the late night attack was one of the worst to date, military sources said.

"It is a heavy toll: five Toyota pick-ups taken, others burned or disappeared, dozens of soldiers scattered and many missing, including a lieutenant who may have been captured," said one military source, who asked not to be identified.

The area 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).

Bahanga, one of the leaders of a previous Tuareg revolt 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 has called for a regional conference on security in the Sahel.

His counterpart in Niger, Mamadou Tandja, recently sent delegations to Algeria, Libya and Sudan to appeal for support in ending violence, which his government has dismissed as banditry.

Last week, Mali and Niger's security ministers met in the eastern Malian town of Gao to sign a deal allowing each others' security forces to pursue suspected bandits across their border.

The MNJ, which demands greater Tuareg control over revenues from uranium mining in the desert north, has publicly denied it has any links with the violence in Mali.

Niger this week banned discussion of the violence on live television. The government expelled a Libyan diplomat from Agadez this month for interference in Niger's internal affairs, after alleging that some foreign powers are backing the rebels.

The sparsely-populated Agadez region, where the insurgency is raging, is the size of France and difficult to police. The government declared a state of emergency in the region last week, giving the police and armed forces special powers.

Niger's army said on Thursday it had chased off five armed individuals attempting to plant mines on the road between Agadez and Dirkou. Captain Chaibou Alou told state radio the men had fled into the mountains near Tourayat after an exchange of fire. (Additional reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey)

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