BAMAKO, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The Malian army said a dozen terrorists were killed Thursday in a military operation in the country's northern Kidal region.

Following "a period of observation and verification," the soldiers engaged and killed the dozen terrorists and destroyed the pickup truck they were traveling in west of Telabit, the army said in a statement late Thursday.

Since 2012, Mali has been grappling with a multifaceted crisis caused by separatist insurgencies, jihadist incursions, and intercommunal violence, which have killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.