Mauritania: two Salafists arrested in Nouakchott

NOUAKCHOTT- Two Islamist fighters arrested in Nouakchott on Friday evening, after a shootout with police, are ...most likely... those who killed on June 23 an American citizen in the Mauritanian capital, said Saturday a police source.

•     “Most probable, they could be the same people who killed the American,” said this source, speaking under cover of anonymity. It said they were “young Salafists.” The assassination of an American had been claimed by Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi).
  
      An exchange of fire took place Friday night between police and the armed men, several hours before the opening of polling for the presidential election on Saturday.
  
      One of the two young Mauritanians arrested was wearing, according to a police officer, “a belt of explosives that he had not operated. The police has neutralized him and managed to remove the belt, late at night,” he said. Wounded, the Salafist was transported to the military hospital in Nouakchott.
  
      Witnesses had reported Friday a third man, who had managed to escape in a vehicle. But this information has not been confirmed Wednesday.
  
      In this same area of Ksar, on June 23, an American citizen, Christopher Leggett, 48, who lived in the country for several years, was killed in broad daylight by several bullets in the head at the school that he managed.
  
      Mauritania is the target of several attacks claimed by the Maghreb branch of Al Qaeda.
  
      In late 2007, four French tourists were killed in Aleg (250 km east of the capital). Three young Mauritanians close to Aqmi are currently detained and awaiting trial.
  
      Mauritanian soldiers were also killed in three attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda in Lemgheity (northeast) in 2005, in Alghallaouiya (center-north) in 2007 and then in Turine (far north) in 2008.
  
      Aqmi is mainly located in Algeria but has extended nearly three years ago its operations in the Sahel, since two years in Mauritania and the last few weeks in Mali.
  
      
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.