Three outsiders injured in attack at Israeli embassy (3rd Roundup)

Feb 1, 2008, 22:14 GMT

Nouakchott/Tel Aviv - Six gunmen opened fire at the Israeli embassy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott before dawn Friday, a senior Mauritanian police source confirmed.

The Israeli ambassador to Mauritania, Boaz Bismut, said no Israeli or Mauritanian staff of the embassy had been injured.

Three French citizens were injured in or near a neighbouring restaurant-discotheque. Police said two of them were hit by stray bullets.

The owner of the restaurant, a French citizen of Mauritanian origin, was seriously injured and had to be operated on. He was believed to have been hit in the back by a stray bullet.

Six men clad in turbans and long robes got out of a car and walked towards the restaurant, witness Hamza Ould Bilal said.

'They said in Arabic 'let's go,' shouted 'God is great' and fired' at the embassy, according to Ould Bilal.

The gunmen, who used automatic weapons, launched the attack at around 2:20 am (0220 GMT).

The Mauritanian soldiers guarding the building responded to the fire and a gunbattle of several minutes ensued, prompting the attackers to flee in a car.

The embassy was empty at the time, but embassy staff were woken up by the noise which echoed in the city.

The wealthy neighbourhood where the attack occurred was cordoned off. Security was tightened around US and Western embassies.

Police opened an investigation to 'clarify this affair,' according to a senior police source.

The identity of the attackers was not known, but it was suspected they could have links with al-Qaeda.

The attack came after widespread demonstrations in the Islamic republic against Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, which Bismut said was widely covered in the local media in a 'blunt and I would even say exaggerated' way.

The protesters demanded the West African nation cut off its diplomatic ties with Israel.

Ambassador Bismut told Israel Army Radio 'Israel and Mauritania have had full diplomatic relations since 1999 - both countries understand the severity of the incident.'

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni telephoned Bismut, and Israeli officials stressed the importance of Israel's ties with Mauritania to the Jewish state.

'These relations are important to us because Mauritania is one of only three Arab states which have full diplomatic relations with us,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Arieh Mekel told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

'So the relations are important and we try to foster them. Of course this attack will not deter us and we will continue to foster the relationship with Mauritania,' he said.

Mekel said the attack did not appear to have caused damage to the Israeli embassy building.

Apart from Egypt and Jordan, Mauritania is the only member of the Arab League to have full diplomatic relations with Israel.

The attack came weeks after organizers cancelled the Lisbon-Dakar Rally due to security concerns following the December 24 killing of four French tourists while picnicking in Mauritania.

The government blamed the incident on Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda.

A few days after the attack on the French tourists, several Mauritanian soldiers were killed in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda's north African branch, the Algerian-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Mauritanian police estimate the number of al-Qaeda-linked Islamists in the country at about 30. The cancellation of the Dakar rally has dealt a heavy blow to Mauritanian tourism.

The 30th Dakar Rally was to have passed through Mauritania between January 11 and January 19. It was the first time in the 30-year history of the rally across the deserts of North Africa that the race was cancelled.

An Israeli delegation was scheduled to travel to Mauritania Friday morning to evaluate the security at the embassy.

Israeli embassies have a history of attacks and security at them is among the tightest in the world.

In July 2004, the Israeli ambassador's personal bodyguard and four local policemen were killed in a dual suicide bombing outside the Israeli and US embassies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In the deadliest such attack on an Israeli representation, a truck bomb in Buenos Aires in March 1992 killed 28 people, including four Israelis and four local personnel, and injured some 300 others.