18 soldiers killed in attack against a military base in north Mauritania
Mauritania, Politics, 6/6/2005

Some 18 Mauritanian soldiers were killed and other 20 were injured in an attack against a base for the army situated 400 Km near Zerowat are in the far north east of Mauritania.

News reports said that the Mauritanian army announced the utmost state of alert and dispatched reinforcements including reconnaissance planes to the area which had witnessed violent clashes last Thursday and Friday.

According to military sources, the base is situated in the heard of the desert in an area of abundant smugglers and traffickers. Certain sides close to the government implicated the armed opposition movement in exile "the knights of Change" after sentencing two members of the movement Abdul Rahman Weld Meini and Saleh Weld Hanana in February to life imprisonment under the charge of taking part in three coupe attempts in 2003 and 2004.

The Mauritanian authorities are chasing at the meantime other four members of this group. Nouakchott accuses the executors of these attempts of receiving support from Islamists and from Libya and Burkina Faso. A matter which is denied by the two countries.

Other sources close to the authorities said that "al-Salafeyah group for call and fighting" in Algeria which is accused of having ties with the Mauritanian Islamic movement might be behind this attack.

Some 50 Mauritanian Islamists are being tried over having links with al-Qaida organization. Last Friday, Islamists detained in the central prison in Mauritania started food strike in order to force the government to permit them contacting their lawyers.

Lawyer Muhammad Weld al-Haj said that the detainees abstained from taking food with the exception of milk and juice and waters until they are permitted to contact their lawyers.

Previous Stories:
  Yemen, Mauritania presidents and me peace process   (6/2/2005)
  Mauritania's police disperses Islamist demonstration   (5/31/2005)
  Mauritanian brings Islamists to judiciary, releases others   (5/28/2005)

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