Suspected Jihadists Attack Cash Truck in Burkina Faso

Suspected jihadist fighters attacked an armored van transporting money from a gold mine in Burkina Faso, the country's security minister said Sunday, the latest sign of Islamist violence spreading from neighboring Mali.

A group of heavily armed men with rocket launchers and automatic rifles attacked the truck in the country's north on Friday, killing the driver and wounding one other person, security minister Alain Zagre told AFP.

Police accompanying the van fought off the attackers, who fled the scene, a police source said.

"We think it is certainly a jihadist group that identified the Inata gold mine and decided to take action to get hold of funds," Zagre said.

Military operations had seriously disrupted Islamist fighters in Mali, forcing them to move to neighboring countries, Zagre said as his country went to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president and parliament.

Security was tight for the election, with up to 25,000 troops deployed to ward off the threat of an attack, following two recent assaults against police barracks on the country's long western border with troubled Mali.