Mauritania Regaining Control of Capital (washingtonpost.com)

By SHEIKH BEKAYE

The Associated Press

Monday, June 9, 2003; 10:46 AM

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania-Government forces appeared to regain control of the capital of this Arab-led West African country Monday after rebellious soldiers launched a coup attempt against Mauritania’s pro-West leader.

Silence fell across the city after gunbattles and explosions, which erupted for a second day early Monday, subsided around midday.

Government roadblocks sprang up overnight in otherwise deserted streets near the presidential palace and state- radio headquarters – which coup forces earlier had claimed were under their control.

Hundreds of government supporters spilled into downtown shouting, “We have won, we have won.”

Others were less optimistic.

“If the coup fails, it’s a catastrophe,” said one young man ,Sid Ahmed Ould Ali. “If it doesn’t fail, it’s still a catastrophe

President Maaouya Sid’Ahmed Ould Taya’s whereabouts remained unknown, though government officials said he was in a secure location directing efforts to restore order. State radio and television stations were not broadcasting.

The uprising came after a government crackdown on Islamic activists, launched with the U.S. -led war in Iraq.

Nouakchott residents awoke early Sunday to heavy explosions, which continued throughout the day. While fighting dwindled overnight, fresh explosions rocked the city early Monday.

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

There were also explosions near a military base, in the southern part of the city, and around the international airport, on the eastern outskirts of town.

Army Chief of Staff Mohammed Lamine Ould N’Deyane was killed during the fighting, military sources said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The circumstances were not immediately clear.

Staff at the city’s main hospital said they had received the bodies of at least three soldiers and treated 16 others for gunshot wounds. Many civilians were injured, they said Sunday.  

The Arab satellite television station Al_Jazeera said the coup appeared to be led by officers recently dismissed from the army and others angered by the government’s campaign against Islamic extremism.

Military officials said coup forces controlled Nouakchott’s tank division, based in the city’s southern neighborhood of Arafat. The division’s strength wasn’t known.

The government crackdown initially tried to quell Islamic shows of support for Iraq. Dozens of Islamic leaders were arrested last month for allegedly using mosques to recruit young men as fighters. At least 32 were freed Sunday when rebel soldiers released prisoners from two jails, opposition officials said.

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

After a bitter falling out with ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Ould taya trac alliance with Iraq for improved relations with Israel. Mauritania is one of only thr to hold diplomatic relations with Israel.

Ould Taya himself came to power in a 1984 military coup, and was elected presid 1997 voting widely viewed as flawed.

Mauritania – a sahara desert country of 2.5 million people – is   among the world nations.

                                                                                           2003 The Associated Press