A dozen Mauritanian soldiers were killed in an ambush Monday by members of Al-Qaeda's North African branch, a security official said. The unit had been "on a normal patrol on the northern border" when the attack took place 70 kilometers east mining of the town of Zouerat, close to the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.The official did not say whether any of the assailants, described as members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), were killed in the attack, the worst of its kind in three years. The remainder of the patrol, which numbered 22 or 23 soldiers, managed to return to base afterward, the official said, adding that reinforcements had been sent to the area.
Last month a statement by AQIM appeared on the Internet condemning the August 6 military coup in Mauritania and urging the Mauritanian people "to prepare for war." The suspected head of Al-Qaeda in Mauritania, Al-Khadim Ould Esseman, also urged the country's Muslims not to recognize the ruling military junta, calling it an "infidel regime."
Monday's ambush came as the African Union's security and peace commissioner, Ramdane Lamamra, was to meet coup leader General Mohammad Ould Abdel-Aziz to try to broker an end to the country's constitutional crisis.