Islamic Gunmen Attack Israeli Embassy
According to foreign media reports, six gunmen opened fire on the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott, in the northwest African country of Mauritania early Friday morning, trading fire with guards before fleeing screaming “Allah Akbar,” witnesses said.
The six men arrived by car and regrouped in front of a discotheque that is just beside the embassy, said Hamza Ould Bilal, a taxi driver who was parked outside the club, called the VIP. He saw them pull out their automatic weapons and scream “God is Great!” in Arabic, before assailing the embassy, he said.
Guards at the embassy traded fire with the gunmen, repelling them. The men fled on foot, before jumping into a car, said Bilal.
Al Jazeera said that five people had been wounded in the attack, but the Israeli Foreign Ministry denied reports, saying that the attack occurred in the early hours of the morning at a time when few embassy workers had arrived.
Israeli Ambassador to Mauritania Boaz Bismut told media outlets that despite foreign reports, only one gunman had carried out the attack.
“Israel and Mauritania have had full diplomatic relations since 1999… both countries understand the severity of the incident,” Bismut told Army Radio.
The neighborhood has been roped off by the Mauritanian military, which is preventing journalists and visitors from entering.
Last week Mauritanian protesters mounted pressure on their government to cut ties with Israel as a punishment for alleged Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Among the demonstrators were members of the government’s main opposition.
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.
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