Posted on 06/08/2003 11:59:51 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Forces loyal to the pro-Israel Arab president of Mauritania, who recently cracked down on Islamic militants in the northwest African desert state, on Sunday put down a coup attempt, government sources said.
Fighting was heard from early Sunday in the capital Nouakchott, with automatic gunfire and explosions reported near the presidential building and army headquarters in the city centre.
But by early afternoon there was still no independent confirmation of who the alleged coup plotters were and no official announcement or news of the night's events on state media.
President Maaouiya Ould Taya and his family were safe and in good health and Ould Taya himself was directing an operation from the presidential palace to put down the remnants of the coup attempt, the government sources said.
Soldiers and civilians wounded in the overnight fighting were being treated in hospitals in Nouakchott, hospital sources said, but they did not say how many were injured or give details of their injuries.
Sporadic fighting continued until early afternoon near an army barracks where the would-be putschists were based, a government source said.
At the state television and radio station in the far northwest of the city that lies on the Atlantic Ocean, a soldier who answered the phone told AFP fighting there had stopped.
"There is no problem now. We are from the presidential army unit. The premises have been pacified," he said.
An eyewitness said earlier he had seen a tank on fire in front of the radio building.
Some witnesses said a plane had flown over the city several times after the fighting began around 1 am and there were reports of anti-aircraft fire.
The reported coup attempt came amid heightened tension in the vast Sahara desert country of just 2.7 million people, about a third of whom are black and the rest are either of Arab or mixed descent.
The government of the Islamic republic has in recent weeks been cracking down on Islamic militants.
On Tuesday, 36 people were charged with "plotting against the constitutional order" and other offences including incitement to damage security at home and abroad and of belonging to illegal organisations.
The official media have mounted campaign against Islamic extremism and the threat of terrorism, with political and religious commentators stating that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network cells were "alive and well and living in Mauritania".
In May Mauritanian Prime Minister Cheikh El-Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna warned that extremists hoped to use Mauritania as a new base, after being chased out of other countries.
The arrests in Mauritania come amid a heightened terrorist alert worldwide, fuelled by extremist attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which borders Mauritania to the north.
President Ould Taya himself came to power through a coup in December 1984. After a multi-party system was set up, he won the presidential election in 1992 and was re-elected in 1997. The next election is scheduled for November.
While officially an Islamic republic, Mauritania has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1999 and since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States has repeated its determination to combat international terrorism.
There is widespread opposition in Mauritania to Ould Taya's links with Israel. Mauritania became in 1999 only the third Arab League state to set up full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
It could happen. Our governor, bless her heart, has an 18% approval rating and couldn't get re-elected if she were running unopposed and pooping gold.
Considering the source on this account (AFP), I have to give it the nod. The French government, and therefore AFP, would be inclined to play up the success of the rebels, as they would love to see another anti-Israel/anti-US government take power. The fact that they can't put a happy face (for them) on it goes a long way to confirming that the coup was put down.
It could happen. Our governor, bless her heart, has an 18% approval rating and couldn't get re-elected if she were running unopposed and pooping gold.
Mine too, and I don't expect a dime's worth of difference in the winters in Wyoming, either. But if you'd care to meet some of the FSP *Porcupines* who might be the new neighbors should Montana be the chosen FSP *Goal State* in a likely few months, you can find 'em at the FSP Montana Yahoo Group *here*.
-archy-/-
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