The sound of explosions and heavy weapons fire shook the center of Mauritania's capital yesterday after a night of relative calm, witnesses said.
The blasts, some from around the presidency, cast doubt over an earlier government announcement that an attempted coup had been put down and its leaders arrested.
"The night was quiet and then at 6am the explosions started again," said one resident living not far from the centre of Nouakchott.
It was not immediately clear which side was attacking.
Mauritania's information minister said earlier yesterday that the attempt to overthrow President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya was over and the putschists had been arrested after a day of combat by troops loyal to the northwest African country's president, a rare Arab friend of Israel.
But there was no independent confirmation to lift the uncertainty over the fate of Taya, who has been battling his most serious threat since taking power in a bloodless 1984 coup.
Dissident soldiers stormed the presidential building at one point, but reinforcements rolled into the usually sleepy city late on Sunday in at least 100 military vehicles.
Explosions shook the capital after nightfall, but then gave way to the longest spell of calm since the coup attempt began.
"The last of the putschists have given themselves up," Information Minister Hamoud Ould M'Hamed said by phone. He did not give further details of the plotters or say where the president was.
Split between black Africans and light-skinned Arabs, the almost exclusively Muslim country has recently been gripped by unease over the arrest of dozens of Taya's Islamist opponents.
The Arab president's friendship with Israel finds little favor in the largely desert country, where Saharan sand dunes roll down to the Atlantic coast.
State radio has been off the air since a brief announcement on Sunday morning to say that Taya was in full control. M'Hamed said service would resume yesterday.
Hospitals struggled to cope with scores of wounded. Medical workers said they could not tell how many had been killed.
Residents say they believe the uprising was staged by an armored unit and the air force. Officials say in private they suspect the involvement of an officer removed two years ago for whipping up discontent over the Israeli links.
The coup plotters have not made any public statement and it was unclear whether the attempted putsch was linked to growing political tension after a crackdown on Islamists and politicians close to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Thirty-two Islamic leaders were charged this month with threatening national security. Police sources said they were suspected of links to a foreign network of Islamic extremists.
There is widespread displeasure in Mauritania at Taya's longstanding ties with Israel. In 1999, Mauritania became only the third Arab League state to establish full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
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