Mali troops subdued the Islamic militants who attacked a military training camp and the airport in Mali’s capital Tuesday after gunbattles that killed some soldiers, authorities said. An al-Qaida-linked group claimed the attack.

The militants tried to infiltrate the Faladie military police school in Bamako in a rare attack for the capital before government troops were able to “neutralize” the attackers, army Chief of Staff Oumar Diarra said on national TV, without elaborating.

At least 15 suspects were arrested, a security official who was inside the training camp at the time of the attack told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.

“This cowardly and perfidious attack led to some losses of life on the army’s side,” the army said in a statement read on national television in the evening, confirming that trainees at the military training camp were killed but not saying how many.

Mali’s army also confirmed the militants targeted the airport, in the statement.

The al-Qaida-linked militant group JNIM claimed responsibility for the attacks on its website Azallaq. Videos posted by JNIM show fighters setting a plane on fire. The group claimed to have inflicted “major human and material losses.”