BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's government says a military police officer was shot dead in an attack on a security post in the center of the country.

A statement issued late Sunday said the gunmen opened fire Saturday evening on the post in Ouenkoro, in the central Mopti region near the Burkina Faso border. It said another officer was injured and that a local government office and two cars were burned.

The statement did not speculate as to who was behind the attack. Mali's security forces have regularly been targeted by Islamic extremists.

Mali's northern half fell to Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012. A French-led military intervention drove them out of major towns, but north and central Mali remain insecure.