coup, page-2

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10917259%255E1702,00.html

Mauritania 'thwarts coup bid'
From correspondents in Nouakchott
September 29, 2004

THE Mauritanian authorities thwarted an attempted coup d'etat and seized weapons that were to have been used, Interior Minister Mohamed Ghali Ould Cherif Ahmed said.

"Mauritanis's security and intelligence services succeeded in thwarting a vast plan of destabilisation and sabotage" aimed at taking power through "the destruction of the presidency, the chiefs of staff, communications centres, the airport and power stations," the minister said late yesterday.

Among people arrested, he said, was Captain Abderahmane Ould Mini, said to be one of the ringleaders of a June 2003 abortive putsch.

Earlier, military sources who did not want to be identified told AFP that at least four army officers suspected of plotting the coup in June last year had been arrested during recent days.

On June 8 last year army officers launched a coup bid that led to 36 hours of fighting and left 15 people dead, according to an official toll.