Forces loyal to Mauritania's president killed a rebel leader who was attempting to stage a coup in the west African country and ended the mutiny, the editor-in-chief of an independent newspaper told CNN. Early Sunday, in violent street battles, government loyalist forces killed Col. Lamine Ouhd Ndeiane, the army chief who was leading the rebels, said Mohamed El Kouri of the newspaper Inimish al-Watan. Shortly after Ndeiane was killed, the coup attempt collapsed and rebel soldiers were arrested, El Kouri said.
| Large people with moustachios and truncheons are doing painful things to them at this very moment... |
Eighty people died in the fighting, which began at 1:15 a.m. Sunday and ended about 18 hours later. About 50 of the dead were rebels, 12 were loyalists, and the rest were civilians, he said. After the rebels were defeated President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya returned to the presidential palace and appointed a new army chief, Col. Eli Mohammed Vall, who was the director of the national police.
| Presumably in the presence of his predecessor's corpse... |
The coup attempt began when rebel troops attacked the presidential palace with intense gunfire and tank shells. The rebels used tanks which Saddam Hussein donated to the country in 1994, El Kouri said, and managed to take over the presidential palace. Loyalist forces armed with anti-tank weapons managed to destroy eight rebel tanks during the battle.
| Kinda symbolic, isn't it? |
Update, from Middle East On-Line...
Residents of Nouakchott celebrated in the streets Monday after the government announced it had crushed a bid at the weekend to oust President Maaouiya Ould Taya. "Viva Maaouiya, viva Maaouiya," shouted residents as they drove through the city centre blasting their horns, after fresh fighting that had broken out at dawn in the northwest African city fizzled out.
| That's Mauretanian for "Hurrah, hurrah!" |
The government had announced overnight that the attempted coup had been put down in this pro-Western Islamic republic. But fighting broke out anew early Monday between Ould Taya's backers and mutineers who had holed up at the headquarters of the gendarmerie. Monday's fighting broke out when government forces opened fire on mutineers as they tried to slip out of the gendarmerie building at 6 am. It continued for about four hours.
| Until they were all dead? |
At the end of the morning, Communication Minister Hammoud Ould Mhamed went to the offices of the state-run media and told staff that the coup had been put down and broadcasting could resume.
| "Fun's over. Back to work, all of you." |
The abortive coup had been launched amid heightened tensions in the country, where the pro-Western government has launched a crackdown on Islamic militants. A government minister has singled out Salah Ould Hnana, a former colonel sacked from the Mauritanian army, as the mastermind of the coup. Ould Hnana was said to have worked with accomplices in army tank units and the air force to launch the abortive bid. Moustapha Ould Bedredine, head of the opposition Union of Forces for Progress (UPF) said he thought the coup bid was the product of "internal discontent within the army. The putschists probably thought the "current political climate was favourable to their plans," he said.
| "Yar, Ould! The ould man's gettin' slow. 'Tis time he wuz gone, and we had our share!" |
Early last month, police here carried out some dozen raids on Islamist groups accused by the government of having "terrorist intentions" and being linked to international fundamentalist movements. Dozens of suspected Islamic extremists were arrested. At the same time, about a dozen activists from Mauritania's Baathist movement, said to be close to the regime of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were arrested. Nine have since been given suspended three-month suspended prison sentences for setting up a banned organisation.
| So it's a thorough housecleaning, and those being swept out weren't happy about it. With the coup behind him now, though, Ould taya's clear to clamp down on them even harder, if it pleases him. |
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