Mauritania captures five al Qaeda suspects in sweep

By Vincent Fertey

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritanian security forces recaptured five suspected al Qaeda militants on Wednesday including a fugitive accused of killing four French tourists, officials said.

The December 24 killing of the French tourists and a shooting attack against the Israeli embassy in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott in February raised fears of a rise in Islamic militant violence in the traditionally sleepy Saharan state.

Those arrested in Wednesday's operation included Sidi Ould Sidna, a suspect in the slaying of the French tourists, whose escape from police custody outside a courtroom this month led to a nationwide manhunt and a series of raids on suspected militant hideouts.

Chief prosecutor Mohamed Abadllahi Ould Tiyib said Sidna was detained along with another suspect, Khadim Ould Semane, who is accused of masterminding the Israeli embassy attack.

"The two most important suspects have been arrested. I have seen them. They are in detention at the gendarmerie," he said.

A security source said three others were also detained.

"Several searches are under way and those detained have been transferred to a high security location," said the source, who asked not to be named.

The spate of attacks, claimed by al Qaeda's North African branch, triggered concerns that al Qaeda was extending its operations into Mauritania from its established bases in neighboring Algeria and nearby Morocco.

Within days of the killing of the French as they picnicked by a roadside in southern Mauritania, al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attack on a remote northern army post in which several Mauritanian soldiers were killed.

The attacks prompted the cancellation of the Dakar rally for the first time in its history after French officials said al Qaeda had made direct threats against the French-organized trans-Saharan motor race.

The string of attacks has been a blow for a fledgling tourist industry which is an important source of hard currency for Mauritania, a mostly arid country which exports iron ore, fish and a small amount of crude oil but little else.

Sidna's escape from police custody in early April was an embarrassment to Mauritanian authorities and raised questions over the country's ability to counter increasing insecurity and rising Islamic militancy across the Saharan region.

Government security services launched a series of operations in Nouakchott in an effort to catch Sidna and other al Qaeda militants, rounding up several suspects including one man accused of involvement in the tourists' killing who tried to escape dressed as a woman.

(Additional reporting by Ibrahima Sylla; writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Stephen Weeks)