Suspected Islamic militants on trial in Mauritania

NOUAKCHOTT, May 21 (Reuters) More than 20 suspected Islamic militants, some accused of links to al Qaeda, went on trial in Mauritania today in the first such prosecution since a civilian president took office last month.

Some of the men, who include seven young Mauritanians and more than a dozen Imams or religious teachers, are accused of receiving training from al Qaeda's North Africa wing, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

The Algerian-based GSPC recently changed its name to the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings in Algeria last month and is on a US list of terrorist organisations.

Officials said the men on trial are accused of trying to set up a wing of the GSPC with the aim of ''threatening security inside and outside the state'' in Mauritania, an Islamic desert republic that straddles Arab and black Africa.

Some of them are also accused of involvement in a raid in June 2005 that killed 15 soldiers at a remote military post.

It was not clear how long the trial would last.

Part of the group was arrested in April 2005 under the government of then-president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, who was deposed in a military coup in August that year. The junta organised polls and handed over last month to an elected civilian president, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

A state official said today's trial was as much about the new administration showing it could give the suspects a fast, fair trial as about a security crackdown or a response to any specific new threat.

''The government is obliged to respect the dictates of the constitution and the laws ... this is not just a security issue,'' the official said, asking not to be named.

Taya was a close ally of the United States in its global war on terrorism. But he was accused by many Mauritanians of using it as an excuse to crack down on his own moderate Islamist opposition.

Abdallahi, whose inauguration last month was attended by the most senior US delegation ever to visit, has indicated his government will continue to cooperate with the United States.

Security officials and diplomats say al Qaeda's north African wing has been running small, mobile training camps in countries in the southern Sahara, including Mauritania, to train militants in guerrilla tactics, including handling explosives.

US Special Forces have been training armies in the region for several years as part of Washington's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership, aimed at bolstering military cooperation and intelligence-sharing in the region.

REUTERS RJ KP1952