Search on for tourists' killers

2007-12-26 16:34

Ahmed Mohamed

Nouakchott - Mauritanian prosecutors called the brutal Christmas Eve slaying of four French tourists a terrorist act and said security forces were hunting three suspects believed to be members of a regional al-Qaeda-linked terror network.

The three suspects crossed the border into neighbouring Senegal late on Tuesday, said Sidi Mouloud Ould Brahim, the governor of the region, where the attack took place.

Senegalese officials could not confirm whether the suspects were in their territory, but authorities said security forces were sweeping the border region in search of the three men.

Gunmen shot the tourists on Monday as they picnicked on the side of a road near Aleg, a small town 245km east of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott, said police said.

The attackers then fled south toward the Senegalese border, police said.

Attack 'perpetrated by three men'

The sole survivor, the family's father, was seriously injured and flown overnight to the main hospital in Senegal's capital, Dakar, where he was in an intensive care unit, said Moussa Samb, spokesperson for the hospital.

French radio station France Info said the father would be sent on Wednesday to France and hospitalised in Lyon.

A statement issued on Tuesday by the public prosecutor's office in Mauritania's capital said the attack was perpetrated by three men who it said were known members of the Algeria-based terror network, al-Qaeda, in Islamic North Africa.

"This was a grave terrorist act committed by dangerous criminal terrorists," judge Moustapha Ould Said said.

At least two of the suspects had been accused by prosecutors earlier this year of being members of the al-Qaeda-linked terror group and of having undergone military training with them in Algeria.

Second man acquitted

The statement said the trial of one of the men earlier this year was postponed. The second man was acquitted, but prosecutors appealed his case. There were no details on the third suspect.

Also on Tuesday, police said they detained one man who allegedly arranged a taxi for the three men suspected in the attack.

The taxi carried them from Aleg to Boghe, a town on the Senegalese border about 65km to the south. A taxi driver interviewed by police said he took the three to the border town.

The man who allegedly arranged the taxi was tried earlier this year on charges similar to those against the suspected gunmen. He was convicted of having trained with the al-Qaeda group in Algeria and given a two-year suspended sentence.

Three other common criminals detained on Monday by authorities in connection with the slaying of the French tourists were released on Tuesday.

- AP