Soldiers loyal to President Maaouiya Ould Taya stand guard in the centre of Nouakchott, Mauritania, June 2003. Eighteen soldiers were killed and at least 20 injured in an attack on an army base in a remote region of Mauritania overrun by armed bandits and smugglers, Mauritanian military sources said.(AFP/File/Seyllou )
Mauritania blames al Qaeda ally for deadly raid
05 Jun 2005 22:13:11 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ibrahima Sylla
NOUAKCHOTT, June 5 (Reuters) - Mauritania said on Sunday 15 of its soldiers were killed in a weekend raid by militants belonging to an Algerian Islamic fundamentalist group allied to al Qaeda.
Defence Minister Baba Ould Sidi told reporters the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) was behind a dawn attack on a remote military post in northeast Mauritania on Saturday.
"A unit of our national army ... was attacked at dawn on Saturday by the terrorist group known as GSPC," he said.
He said 15 Mauritanian soldiers were killed in the attack, 17 more were wounded and two were missing. Five of the 150 attackers, who were well-equipped, were killed, he said.
The attack took place in the village of Limgheiti, not far from the border with Mali and Algeria. The gunmen stole six military vehicles and burnt two others, the minister said.
The desert triangle between the three countries is a haven for smugglers and bandits. The United States says it is also a training ground for Islamist recruits.
Mauritanian troops were put on maximum alert, military sources said.
Travellers who came from Limgheiti to Zouerat, which lies 400 km (250 miles) to the west, said gunshots had been heard near the military post, which was guarded by about 50 soldiers, on the night of the attack.
The army sent reinforcements from the capital Nouakchott, 750 km (465 miles) south of Zouerat.
In recent months, Mauritania has arrested around 50 suspected Islamists saying they had links to the GSPC. Security forces have searched mosques and confiscated religious texts .
Ould Sidi said the detainees were behind Saturday's attack and that 20 Mauritanians had been trained in GSPC camps for "terrorist attacks". Three of them had been arrested, he said.
The Islamic republic, which critics say is taking advantage of the U.S.-led "war on terror" to crackdown on Islamic opponents, straddles black and Arab Africa.
There have been three coup attempts since June 2003. Some of the dissident soldiers wanted for the failed bids to overthrow President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya are still at large.
Taya, who seized power in a 1984 coup, has angered many Arabs in his country by shifting support from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the United States and Israel.
In 1999 Mauritania, which hopes to start pumping oil this year, became only the third Arab League member country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.