Scores injured in protests over Shalom's to Mauritania

Scores of civilians and security men in the Mauritanian capital were injured in confrontations that took place during angry protest demonstrations over the visit of the Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom to Nouakchott.

The police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of students who demonstrated in protest of the visit, in a country where most of its citizens oppose diplomatic relations with Israel.

Some 1,000 policemen were deployed in the capital while the Israeli foreign minister left the airport in a hurry in a shielded Limousine car for the President of Mauritania in a context of a visit which lasted only for several hours.

Students threw stones and burnt tires outside the university of the city when Shalom arrived despite that track of his procession does not pass through the hostel area. The riot fighting police chased the protesters and threw tear gas at them but the demonstrators returned back in shifts.

University and school students organized huge demonstrations in protest of this visit and some of the angry students chanted "down with Zionism" and "Shalom is a dog" while slogans against Israel covered the walls in the city of sandy streets and low-rise buildings.

The demonstrators burnt Israeli flags demanding the closure of its embassy and for severing diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv.

Clashes took place on Monday between Nouakchott University students who oppose the visit and the police force who used tear bombs to disperse them.

News reports said that security tension continued because of fears of the government that the opposition "the Knights of the Change" organization would get involved in the acts of protest especially in the two areas of the west basin and the capital.