(AL JAZEERA) A United States military aircraft has reportedly been fired on by Tuareg rebels in the north of Mali, according to Malian and US officials.
A C-130 aircraft was delivering supplies to Malian troops in the far north of the African country when it was hit, officials said on Thursday
The aeroplane returned safely to base after the incident in the early hours of Wednesday.
"Our plane was shot at ... but there was no damage," a US diplomatic source told the AFP news agency.
"The [Tuareg] rebels did it," the source said.
Major John Dorrian of the US command in Stuttgart, Germany said, however, that there had been slight damage to the C-130 aircraft.
He said that the damage was most likely caused by "small arms fire, probably rifles".
The attack followed a joint exercise involving US troops and the armies of several Sahel states, the vast region bordering the Sahara desert, aimed at countering the threat of terrorism in the region, officials, who asked not to be named, told the Reuters news agency.