Mauritania has been rocked by a military coup in a move that
could undermine the U.S.-led campaign against Al Qaida in North Africa.
Rebel troops have overthrown the regime of President Maaoya Sid Ahmed
Taya, an ally of the United States. On Wednesday, presidential guard troops
seized the national radio station and captured the headquarters of the
military chief of staff in a brief gunbattle.
During the coup, Taya was at the funeral of Saudi King Fahd in Riyad, Middle East Newsline reported.
Later, Taha arrived in Niger to plan a comeback.
Western diplomats said Mauritania, expected to become an oil producer in
2006, has become a target of Al Qaida-aligned groups. In June 2005, the
Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call, regarded as Al Qaida's leading
subcontractor, attacked a military base near the Mauritanian border with
Algeria. It was the first time the Salafist Brigade claimed responsibility
for an attack outside of Algeria.
Over the last two years, Mauritania has become a leading participant in
U.S. efforts to fight Al Qaida-aligned groups in North Africa. The U.S.
Defense Department sent special operations troops to train Mauritania's army
in counter-insurgency missions, including the effort to capture Salafist
commanders.
"We call for a peaceful return to order under the constitution and the
established government of President Taya," acting State Department Tom Casey
said.
[In an unrelated development, Jordanian newspapers reported on Thursday
that authorities arrested 17 suspected members of an Al Qaida cell with
links to Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The newspapers said the Al Qaida cell sought
to assassinate senior Jordanian military and security commanders.]
The coup was said to have been engineered by a group of Mauritanian army
officers, termed the Military Council for Justice and Democracy. The council
issued a statement to the official news agency that pledged to maintain
rule for no more than two years.
"The armed forces have unanimously decided to put an end to the
totalitarian practices of the deposed regime under which our people have
suffered much over the last several years," the statement said. "The
military and security forces do not intend to hold power for longer than a
period of two years,
which is considered essential to prepare and establish true democratic
institutions."
In 1999, the Taya regime agreed to full diplomatic relations with
Israel. The Israel embassy in Nouakchott said diplomatic staff would remain
in the country.
Taya, who came to power in a coup in 1984, was nearly overthrown by the
military in 2003. Two additional coup attempts were reported in 2004. Taya
had attributed the attempts to overthrow him to Islamic insurgents.
