Officers stage coup in Mauritania

MAURITANIAN army officers overthrew the US-allied president yesterday, saying a military junta would temporarily rule the Islamic nation that has increasingly looked to the West as the government raised fears of a growing threat from al-Qaida linked militants.

President Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Taya, who himself seized power in a coup two decades ago, was out of the country when presidential guard troops took control of the national radio and television stations, cutting broadcasts and seizing a building housing the army chief of staff headquarters.

Mr Taya, who has allied himself with the US in the war on terror and cracked down ruthlessly on opponents he accuses of being Islamic extremists, refused comment after arriving yesterday in Niger from Saudi Arabia, where he attended King Fahd’s funeral.