Mauritania detains suspected Islamists - sources

By Staff
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NOUAKCHOTT, June 2 (Reuters) Mauritanian security services have rounded up dozens of suspected members and supporters of an al Qaeda-linked Islamic rebel group who were plotting attacks, security sources said today.

At least two of the detainees were suspected of involvement in a June 2005 raid on a remote military post which killed 15 Mauritanian soldiers while another was accused of belonging to an al Qaeda cell in Barcelona, Spain, the sources said.

The arrests were made during a manhunt over the past month for three suspected members of the Algerian-based militant Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) who escaped from a jail in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott on April 27.

''They were planning to carry out actions,'' one source said, without giving further details.

Mauritanian newspaper El Alam said on Friday that three people arrested this week had confessed to working for the GSPC.

One of them admitted to taking part in the 2004 Madrid bombings which killed nearly 200 people, and the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed more than 200.

''The three Mauritanians held have confessed that they were under the orders of (senior GSPC member) Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and that one of them had participated in the Madrid bombings and in the attack against the US embassy in Nairobi,'' El Alam said.

The newspaper said the group had been planning to kidnap foreigners -- a tactic favoured by the GSPC in the area -- and attack financial institutions.

Mauritanian government officials could not be reached for immediate comment today, which is the first day of the weekend in the Islamic Republic.

AL QAEDA LINKS The GSPC and its al Qaeda allies have been increasingly active in Mauritania and other countries in the arid Sahel region fringing the Sahara, recruiting members, raising funds and planning attacks, security officials say.

''We are also quite certain there has been contact between al Qaeda operatives that have been sent to the region and GSPC operatives active in the region,'' a US counterterrorism official said.

''Some of these people have been involved in operational planning for terrorist acts that have not taken place but were preempted due to good work by us and our foreign partners,'' the US official added.

Mauritania's security forces have rounded up dozens of suspected Islamist militants in recent years.

A military junta released many of them after the overthrow of President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya in a bloodless coup last August. It has pledged to remain an ally in the US-led struggle against terrorism, keeping a number of al Qaeda suspects in detention.

Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Boubacar said yesterday the country's anti-terrorism operations were producing encouraging results, but he declined to give details.

''The security forces are vigilant ... they are accomplishing their mission,'' he told reporters at a news conference when asked about anti-terrorism efforts.

''The results are encouraging ... Mauritania is engaged in the struggle against terrorism,'' Boubacar said.

REUTERS SRS HS2105

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