Mauritanian capital returning to normal after thwarted coup attempt

Article from: AP Worldstream | June 10, 2003 | SHEIKH BEKAYE, Associated
Press Writer.

– NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania -Residents of this desert capital returned to the streets Tuesday to stare at charred tanks and bullet-pocked buildings after the president said he had crushed a coup attempt by disgruntled military officers.

Machine-gun toting soldiers in dun-colored camouflage patrolled Nouackchott, which appeared under the control of forces loyal to President Maaouya Sid’Ahmed Taya _ who himself grabbed power in a bloodless 1984 coup.

Banks and stores reopened, and buses and taxis circulated.

“This is the first time that we lived a war,” said one man in his 50s, who asked not to be named. “I live close to the presidential …

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