Military stages coup bid in Mauritania

Mauritania’s pro-West leader battled an apparent coup attempt today, as gun and tank cannon fire erupted near the presidential palace.

The fighting followed a government crackdown on Islamic activists since the US-led Iraq war.

President Maaouya Sid’Ahmed Ould Taya’s whereabouts amid the clashes were not immediately known. The Arab satellite television station al-Jazeera reported that coup forces were in Taya’s presidential palace.

But a senior government official insisted authorities had the situation under control.

“There are some small groups fighting in parts of the city, but it is just a question of time,” until order is restored, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Residents reached by telephone in the capital, Nouakchott, said explosions started at 2am. By midday, they could still hear gunfire and see tanks moving.

“I have decided to lock everyone inside, all members of my family, because we are too scared to go out,” said one man. “We are hearing gunshots at this very moment.”

There was heavy fighting around the presidential palace and nearby radio station, where loyalist soldiers and paramilitary police traded gun and cannon fire with Kalashnikov-toting insurgents.

Staff at a city hospital said they had treated 10 people for gunshot wounds. They did not specify whether the victims were civilians or combatants.

State radio and television were off the air, and the international airport was closed.

In neighbouring Morocco, the state-run news agency said the coup attempt was the work of armoured units within Mauritania’s military.

Al-Jazeera said it appeared to be led by officers recently dismissed from the army and others angry about the government’s campaign against Islamic extremism.

Mauritania’s government has cracked down on Islamic activists since the US-led Iraq war, initially to try to prevent any Islamic shows of support for Iraq.

Dozens of Islamic leaders were arrested last month for allegedly using mosques to recruit young men as fighters.

Mauritania’s Arab-led government has tried to balance a strongly Islamic nation with Westward-looking foreign policy.

After a bitter falling out with ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Ould Taya traded a one-time alliance with Iraq for improved relations with Israel. Mauritania is one of only three Arab nations to hold diplomatic relations with Israel.

Ould Taya himself came to power in a 1984 military coup. He was confirmed as president in 1992 and 1997 elections that were widely viewed as flawed.

Mauritania – a Sahara Desert country of 2.5 million people – is among the world’s 30 poorest nations.