Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., February 08, 2008 Adar1 2, 5768 | | Israel Time: 20:20 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Rosner's Domain
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Advertising
Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File
Security officials examine bullet holes on a vehicle windshield after gunmen opened fire on the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott, early Friday. (Reuters)
Last update - 16:18 02/02/2008
Report: Mauritania arrests three in Israeli Embassy shooting
By News Agencies and Haaretz Service
Tags: attack, embassy, Israel 

Mauritanian authorities have apprehended three suspects believed to be connected to the shooting on the Israeli Embassy in the capital of Nouakchott, Israel Radio said Saturday morning, citing local media reports in Mauritania.

Gunmen opened fire on the Israeli Embassy early Friday, wounding three French citizens, officials and witnesses said.

The three suspects were reportedly arrested while attempting to flee a police checkpoint, according to Israel Radio.
Advertisement
Local media reported that police discovered during the course of the interrogation that the suspects were en route to a rendezvous point nearby, where a getaway car was awaiting them.

Mauritania's foreign minister, Mohamed Saleck Mohamed el-Amin, met with Israel's ambassador, Boaz Bismuth, during which the minister conveyed his sorrow over the shooting, Israel Radio reported.

Bismuth said no embassy staff were hurt in the shooting attack, speaking to Israel Radio in a telephone conversation on Friday.

A French woman outside a nightclub near the embassy was among those wounded by the gunmen, officials and witnesses said.

Emergency services initially reported that a number of people were wounded in the shooting, but Bismuth said he was only aware of one person who had been hurt outside the embassy, a Mauritanian who lived nearby.

Two witnesses told The Associated Press that the attack had been carried out by a group of men who shouted "God is Great!" in Arabic before opening fire on the embassy around 2 A.M.

Mauritanian officials issued no immediate comment.

Hamza Ould Bilal, a taxi driver who had been parked outside the VIP, a disco next to the embassy, said that six men gathered outside the club before pulling out weapons and attacking. Guards at the embassy traded fire with the gunmen, who fled on foot and jumped into a car, Bilal said.

Ali Fall, a club employee, said several men attacked the embassy with guns before fleeing in a car. The assailants also sprayed gunfire at the club, injuring three French citizens.

The woman was injured when bullets hit the car she was in and she was taken to hospital by a companion.

The neighborhood was cordoned off by the Mauritanian military, who prevented journalists and visitors from entering.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and her ministry's Director-General, Aharon Abramovich, spoke to Bismuth shoftly after the incident on Friday morning, Israel Radio reported.

Abramovich told Israel Radio that ties with Mauritania are important to Israel, and expressed the hope that they would be strengthened in the future, in the light of the peace process with the Palestinians.

Speaking to Reuters, Bismuth said: "I have received many phone calls from Mauritanian friends who are very concerned. That is the only positive thing in a very sad night."

"It only happened a few hours ago, but a shooting on a foreign embassy is a very serious incident."

An Israeli security official left for Mauritania on Friday morning to examine the security arrangements at the embassy, Israel Radio reported.

The attack followed recent public calls by political parties in Mauritania, an Islamic Republic which straddles black and Arab Africa, for the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel. The country is one of the few Arab League states to have relations with Israel.

On Christmas Eve, four French tourists were killed by gunmen while picnicking on the side of a road in Mauritania, an act the government blamed on a terror sleeper cell affiliated with Al-Qaida. Their killing led the French organizers of the famous Dakar Rally to cancel the long-standing trans-Saharan race, which would have traversed this desert nation last month.

Related articles:
  • Junta officials: Mauritanian ties with Israel to remain intact
  • Liberian Pres. Johnson-Sirleaf to pay Israel rare visit by African leader
  • Heart of darkness
    • Bookmark to del.icio.us  
     
    Baghdad, Interrupted
    Movie star Angelina Jolie takes on Iraq as UN goodwill ambassador.
    Unwanted praise
    Hezbollah leader Nasrallah compliments on the Winograd Committee report.
      1.   This confirms what I always suspected 06:38  |  Rory 01/02/08
      2.   Mauritania = Good Arabs 06:39  |  IsraFan 01/02/08
      3.   look at the root of the problem! 06:41  |  Leon Rosgarten 01/02/08
      4.   Moslems` Favorite Hobby--Killing 07:23  |  Mohammad 01/02/08
      5.   #3 Leon Rosgarten, the last throtzkist, should be kicked out UK. 07:38  |  Vittorio 01/02/08
      6.   God may be great. Allah not so much. 07:43  |  McQueen 01/02/08
      7.   So far JP and MSNBC only outlets carrying this bad news. 07:58  |  Nechama 01/02/08
      8.   If Jews had attacked an Arab embassy..... 08:32  |  Hastaroth 01/02/08
      9.   They are such miserable creatures. 09:17  |  MaryRose 01/02/08
      10.   Most predictable thing imaginable 09:18  |  Natallie Durson 01/02/08
      11.   Why is there an embassy there ? traitors 09:21  |  FreePalestine 01/02/08
      12.   Islamofascists at work, as usual.......... 09:36  |  maurice 01/02/08
      13.   Stop your whining 09:43  |  Cham de Frey 01/02/08
      14.   The Paris to Dakar Rally. was cancelled..... 10:14  |  Stephen. 01/02/08
      15.   Kick out Israeli embassy 10:28  |  Minda 01/02/08
      16.   `in the light of the peace process`?! 10:29  |  Michael 01/02/08
      17.   Israel had it coming Cont. 10:29  |  Natallie Durson 01/02/08
      18.   what about Turkey?? 10:32  |  La Meca`s sheriffe 01/02/08
      19.   SanFran loves Palestinians 10:36  |  Reality 01/02/08
      20.   Who blame who? 10:37  |  La Meca`s sheriffe 01/02/08
      21.   ONLY A BEGINNING 10:59  |  indrajaya 01/02/08
      22.   Nazzilie Durson`s nonsense 11:06  |  The Judge 01/02/08
      23.   Haaretz editor & Minda 11:07  |  The Judge 01/02/08
      24.   Miserable cowards who shoot and bolt back to thier rat holes 11:08  |  Natalie Durson 01/02/08
      25.   #16 michael still in the dark about islam 11:11  |  v hardman 01/02/08
      26.   To Minda #15 Thank you 11:11  |  dovvod 01/02/08
      27.   we have also to remember that Nazi emabassies 11:14  |  Mauritanian 01/02/08
      28.   # 17. Natallie.....you are wrong again. 11:15  |  Stephen. 01/02/08
      29.   Victory. 11:15  |  Harold Lane 01/02/08
      30.   # 21. These are wannabee A.Q. 11:24  |  Stephen. 01/02/08
      31.   Stupid Shooting 11:31  |  Magnify 01/02/08
      32.   Natallie Durson and how much has your country annihilated 11:34  |  Gil 01/02/08
      33.   Indrajaya 11:52  |  Gil 01/02/08
      34.   #17, Durson and "genocidal aggression" 11:54  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 01/02/08
      35.   #23, Durson:"they will be caught, hung and quartered" 12:02  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 01/02/08
      36.   good news for a change 12:19  |  FBY 01/02/08
      37.   Israel should close their embassy immediately 12:33  |  PETER SM 01/02/08
      38.   Attack on Israeli ambassy 12:40  |  Brutus 01/02/08
      39.   Indrajaya: say what?? 12:46  |  The Judge 01/02/08
      40.   Islam = the religion of peace? 12:51  |  Steven 01/02/08
      41.   #10 12:54  |  Moshe 01/02/08
      42.   To #10 Natallie Durson. Terrorism is their way of life 13:02  |  Moti 01/02/08
      43.   Glad to see the internet in the Arab world is back ON 13:26  |  Figaro 01/02/08
      44.   # 30, STEPHEN 13:35  |  indrajaya 01/02/08
      45.   Peace with Palestinians is very important.. 13:36  |  Arik 01/02/08
      46.   # 39, THE JUDGE 13:42  |  indrajaya 01/02/08
      47.   #4 Meneghem/Mohammad. Wrong!! 13:45  |  Yishai 01/02/08
      48.   #8 Hastaroth. Nothing would have happen if it was the different. 13:47  |  Ali 01/02/08
      49.   # 11 Free Palestinian in the US...... 14:09  |  Lynn 01/02/08
      50.   Israeli embassy 14:21  |  EA 01/02/08
      51.   Mauritania the only Arab country, 14:22  |  Lynn 01/02/08
      52.   Islam is indeed a religion of peace..but not with 14:22  |  American Muslim 01/02/08
      53.   Allah Akbar, God is Great 14:27  |  Said 01/02/08
      54.   # natalie durston get your fact right 14:33  |  Adrian de Klerk 01/02/08
      55.   #52 - American Muslim - Look for some other pretext 14:38  |  Moti 01/02/08
      56.   Natalie Durson - Los Angeles #17 14:43  |  Nechama 01/02/08
      57.   Islam is indeed a religion of peace...but not with 14:45  |  American Muslim 01/02/08
      58.   #52 American Muslim: report to the FBI please 14:47  |  steve 01/02/08
      59.   Why are you so hate? 14:48  |  La Meca`s sheriffe 01/02/08
      60.   why shoot civilians? 14:52  |  La Meca`s sheriffe 01/02/08
      61.   End the vile siege you rotters and get out of Palestine! 14:52  |  lakshmi 01/02/08
      62.   durson the douche bag 14:56  |  danny 01/02/08
      63.   Spain invaded Iraq! 14:59  |  La Meca`s sheriffe 01/02/08
      64.   `Exodus` fiml is a fake 15:07  |  La Meca`s sheriffe 01/02/08
      65.   american muzzie #52 15:10  |  danny 01/02/08
      66.   600 folks killed at Gaza per month! 15:14  |  HAL 9000 01/02/08
      67.   American muslim, Islam is indeed a religion of peace but not with 15:17  |  French Jew 01/02/08
      68.   # 52 American Muslim.....are you saying 15:21  |  Lynn 01/02/08
      69.   Cham de Frey - Italians smile in your 15:23  |  mk 01/02/08
      70.   #15 and Palestinians... 15:31  |  DR