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| Africa North |
| Qaeda claims attacks on Mauritania soldiers |
| 2007-12-30 |
| Al Qaeda's wing in north Africa has said it was behind 15 attacks that it said had killed four Mauritanian soldiers, Al Arabiya television reported yesterday. "We are glad to inform our Muslim nation about the victories achieved by the mujahideen (fighters) of the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb through 15 simultaneous operations," a spokesman for the group said on an audio recording aired by the station. The television said it could not authenticate the recording, which it said it had received, without giving further details. Mauritanian authorities had said gunmen travelling in two vehicles killed three Mauritanian soldiers in a desert clash on Thursday. The spokesman said the attacks, some of them against troops in Algeria, were carried out late on Wednesday. There was no mention in the report of the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania on Monday, which officials have said may have been carried out by Islamic militants. The attacks have raised fears that Al Qaeda-linked militants who have carried out attacks in Algeria and Morocco may be seeking to extend their operations southwards to Mauritania, Senegal and Mali. Meanwhile, the organisers gave the green light yesterday for the 30th Dakar rally to proceed as planned through the African state of Mauritania despite security fears prompted by recent Al Qaeda linked attacks. Mauritania has announced that it would mobilise 2,000 soldiers and 2,000 plainclothes police to monitor the rally as it passes through the country between January 11 and 19. "We are going ahead with the Mauritanian stages of the rally.... It now seems that the security situation is back on track," Etienne Lavigne, the French director of the event said. "There is nothing to fear, every precaution has been put in place," Interior Minister Yall Zakaria said. |
| Posted by:Fred |