Three escaped jihadist prisoners were killed in Mauritania during an operation to recapture them, the government said on Saturday.
A police officer died, and a fourth prisoner was detained, officials said.
The operation took place overnight on Friday in the rugged heartland mountainous area of Adrar, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
The four jihadists had escaped from a Nouakchott prison on Sunday last week.
Security forces “came under heavy fire, which led them to engage in combat with the terrorist elements,” the north African country’s defense and interior ministries said.
The government hailed a “quality operation” carried out by security forces in this immense desert country of 4.5 million inhabitants.
No information had been released on the whereabouts of the jihadists in recent days, nor on how they reached the north.
However, a security official said during the week that Ould Cheikh’s “excessively dangerous” escape plan had been “very well organized and planned for a long time.”
During the search for the fugitives, Internet service has been disrupted all week across the country, said NetBlocks, an organization that monitors this activity around the world, linking these disruptions to the hunt for them.
During the original escape, two guards were killed and two injured, the Mauritanian Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization said.
The escape was a rare event in a nation spared the insurgency sweeping through the Sahel.
According to a military official, two of the prisoners had been sentenced to death, while the other two were awaiting trial for membership of a terrorist organization.
One of the prisoners killed was Saleck Ould Cheikh, who had been on death row since 2011 for his part in a plot to assassinate former Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, a military official confirmed.
The death penalty has not been enforced in Mauritania since 1987.
Ould Cheikh had already escaped prison in December 2015 before being arrested in Guinea Bissau and sent back to Mauritania after three weeks on the run.
The second prisoner on death row participated in attacks on the army in the north of the country in 2005, the military official said.
Mauritania has not experienced an attack on its soil since 2011, the result of security and political efforts made since the 2000s to curb the jihadist threat. At the same time, jihadism was spreading to neighboring Mali, then across the Sahel.
The absence of attacks has fuelled suggestions a secret non-aggression pact exists between Nouakchott and the jihadists.
Washington claimed to have found documents in 2011 at the Pakistani hideout where former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed, listing an attempt at rapprochement between the group and the Mauritanian government in 2010. The government has denied this.
Mauritania was regularly targeted in the 2000s, including attacks and kidnappings.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed