Gunmen attack Israeli embassy in Mauritania1 hour ago
NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) — Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the Israeli embassy in Mauritania on Friday, causing several injuries, witnesses said, in an attack condemned by Israel as an "act of terrorism".
Witness Ali Fall told AFP that a group of six men had opened fire with automatic weapons, wounding five people including a "foreign woman".
Ambassador Boaz Bismuth confirmed to AFP that shots had been fired but told Israeli radio that there had been only one shooter and no embassy staff had been hurt.
The attack took place shortly after 2:00 am (0200 GMT).
Israel condemned the assault, as the US-based IntelCenter reported that Al-Qaeda's Ayman Al-Zawahiri had called on Mauritanians to attack the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott a year ago.
"It is a clear act of terrorism that entered the long line of attacks that have targeted our diplomatic representation abroad for several years," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel told AFP.
He underlined the importance that Israel places on its links with Mauritania, one of the three Arab countries -- along with Egypt and Jordan -- with which it has full diplomatic relations.
He said the ministry had sent "specialist security officers" to Nouakchott to look into beefing up embassy security.
IntelCenter, which monitors terrorist activities, said Al-Zawahiri had called for an attack on the embassy in a video released by Al-Qaeda's media mouthpiece, As-Sahab, on February 13, 2007.
"This fits the pattern of al-Qaeda announcing targeting preferences in their public messaging up to a year or more before attacks occur," said IntelCenter CEO Ben Venzke.
Ambassador Bismuth confirmed to AFP that "shots were aimed at our embassy from the street," and added that no one was wounded among the embassy staff or among the Mauritanians working for the embassy.
In an interview with Israeli radio, he said "a single individual" had fired an automatic weapon at the empty embassy building, without injuring anybody.
Fall, who was in a restaurant near the embassy at the time, told AFP that six men wearing boubous -- long flowing African gowns -- and turbans "got out of a vehicle and walked towards" the restaurant.
After a few minutes "they said loudly in Arabic 'let's go' then shouted 'Allah Akbar' (G-d is Greatest) and opened fire" at the embassy, he said.
The embassy guards -- Mauritanian soldiers -- immediately returned fire and the assailants quickly fled, he said.
In the radio interview, Bismuth praised "the cooperation between embassy security and the Mauritanians charged with protecting it, which enabled them to repel the attack".
A source close to the investigation into the shooting said a French national was one of those injured.
The man, a restaurant owner, had been checking on his eatery when he was hit by a stray bullet, the source said.
"He was hit in the back and taken to hospital. I don't know how serious the injury is, but it's not life-threatening," the source said.
The attack comes as pressure increases within Mauritania against the presence of an Israeli embassy there.
The president of the national assembly, Messaoud Ould Boulkheir, called Sunday for the country to "reconsider" its "shameful" relations with the Jewish state following its blockade of the Gaza Strip.
In December, four French adventure tourists were killed in Mauritania by gunmen with suspected Al-Qaeda links.
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