An al Qaida affiliate claimed responsibility for a shooting
attack on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania's capital, saying the
attack aimed to retaliate Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip, an
Arab television station reported Saturday.
The Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera said that Al Qaida in
Islamic North Africa, an affiliate of Osama bin Laden's global
terror network, issued a statement saying it had carried out the
attack as a reprisal against Israel.
According to news reaching Dakar, the attack occurred before
dawn Friday, and five local residents were injured in the exchange
of fire between the gunmen and the embassy guards.
The injured include Samba Sagho, 61, owner of a restaurant
adjacent to the Israeli Embassy and his 42-year old son Sagho Ilyah
Almamy. The third injured, a woman of French nationality, who was a
client at the restaurant at the time of the attack, was evacuated
to Paris.
Mauritania established diplomatic relations with Israel on
October 28, 1999, becoming one of the only three member nations of
the Arab League to maintain diplomatic ties with the Jewish
state.
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip since mid-January has led to
growing demand among Mauritanians to sever the country's diplomatic
ties with Israel.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2008)
