| Mauritanian authorities have detained three individuals suspected of having links to an Algeria-based al Qaeda affiliate known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), Mauritanian security forces said June 2. Among those detained was a man suspected of involvement in the 2004 Madrid al Qaeda bombing and the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The arrests were made during a search for three members of the GSPC who escaped from a jail in Mauritania's capital of Nouakchott on April 27. |