Mauritania hunts al-Qaeda

2008-11-20 17:32

Atar - Mauritania's military rulers, snubbed by Western allies for seizing power in an August coup, are shoring up defences against al-Qaeda cells in the Sahara and traffickers smuggling illegal migrants to Europe.

Operating from the interior garrison towns of Zouerate, Atar and Nema, elite US-trained units of 150 troops patrol the remote desert expanses armed with automatic pistols, rocket launchers and brand new pickups mounted with machine guns.

"I'm in a hurry to find these terrorist groups. Because of them, we've lost several men, and we need to take our revenge," Lieutenant-Colonel Mahmoud Ould Moctar said in Atar during target practice in preparation for a patrol.

In September, 11 Mauritanian soldiers and a guide were beheaded in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda's North African wing.

The patrol was ambushed just days after the departure of 200 US Marines sent to Atar early this year to help train the Mauritanian Camel Corps and other elite forces as part of Washington's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership.

The Marines pulled out as part of international diplomatic protests over the August 6 overthrow of Mauritania's first democratically elected leader, President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, by military chiefs he had tried to sack.

'Very specific threat'

Coup leader General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has vowed to send out increased military patrols on the remote desert borders with Mali and Algeria after a spate of al Qaeda attacks starting with the killing of four French tourists last December.

Washington is still willing to continue to cooperate with the iron-mining Islamic republic's military rulers on the most serious terrorism issues, and is ready to offer assistance in the event of a "very specific threat", Western diplomats said.

But cuts in regular military aid have slowed programmes to train Mauritania's army to combat the threat from militants in the Sahara, in particular from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

"They taught us to shoot straight," said Corporal Cheikh Ould Bounene of the US Marines. He says he is proud to fight terrorism in this desert no man's land.

"Mauritania links black Africa with white (North) Africa. This is the bottom line - if we don't fight terrorism here, for Europe, it's as if we're doing nothing," he said.

Europe, mindful of the involvement of North African Islamist militants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191, also wants Mauritania to maintain efforts to stem a tide of illegal migration via Spain's Canary Islands.

In the two months after the coup, Western security sources reported a pickup in departures of migrants in open wooden boats, especially from Mauritania's northern port of Nouadhibou, raising fears the junta may be neglecting coastal surveillance.

But in recent weeks authorities have resumed operations, and returned a boat with 66 illegal immigrants aboard to Nouadhibou this month.

EU ultimatum

"We're continuing to work satisfactorily with the Mauritanian authorities to control illegal migration," Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Angel Lossada said in neighbouring Senegal on Monday when he presented that country's military with a second-hand patrol plane and helicopter.

Despite European Union condemnation of the coup, Spain lobbied hard to save a four-year deal, worth hundreds of millions of euros, allowing European trawlers including its own large fleet to fish Mauritania's rich Atlantic waters.

Mauritanian and EU officials are set to meet again shortly on an EU ultimatum to restore Abdallahi to office or face EU sanctions. His transfer last week from house arrest in the capital Nouakchott to his home town did not impress diplomats.

"Obviously, the solution is up to the Mauritanians themselves and should involve the restoration of constitutional order in Mauritania," Spain's Lossada told reporters in Senegal.

- Reuters