A suicide bomber attacked a military barracks in eastern Mauritania early Wednesday but was foiled by troops who fired on his vehicle, which then exploded, a senior military official told AFP.
The would-be bomber tried to ram his four-wheel drive vehicle into the barracks before soldiers fired on the vehicle, sparking a "big explosion" which caused heavy damage, the official said.
"He headed toward the barracks, ignoring warning shots by the military, but fortunately the fire prevented him from moving forward and he had to detonate his bomb at the entrance to the barracks at a time when there were only three men on duty," the source said.
The bomber was killed and three soldiers "slightly injured" by the blast that damaged the gate of the barracks and the houses and shops nearby.
The driver of the vehicle, which bore Malian license plates was "torn to shreds, almost unidentifiable, but he had a clear complexion."
The incident in Nema, some 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) east of the capital Nouakchott and close to the border with Mali, happened shortly after midnight.
The senior military official, speaking on condition on anonymity, attributed the foiled attack to Osama Bin Laden's terror network's North African offshoot, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
A second vehicle that was reportedly seen in Nema earlier along with the car that exploded, was being sought by police who have cordoned off the area around the barracks, according to local sources interviewed by AFP.
The army has been placed on alert throughout the country, particularly in "contact zones" with AQIM, bordering Mali, where the oganisation has several bases.
The failed attack comes a month after the Mauritanian army launched an offensive on AQIM bases over the border in Mali to pre-empt a strike on military bases at home.
French forces joined in one attack on July 22 in a bid to free 78-year-old French hostage Michel Germaneau, who was later executed by AQIM.
Seven AQIM militia were killed in that raid, and the Al-Qaeda group has threatened Mauritania and France with reprisals.
Earlier this week, the group released two Spanish hostages held captive in the Sahara for nine months after securing the release of the kidnap mastermind and a reported ransom.
Key to the hostages freedom was Mauritania's extradition to Mali of the convicted mastermind of the Spaniards' kidnapping, who sold his captives on to Al-Qaeda. Omar Sid Ahmed Ould Hamma, a 52-year-old also known as Omar the Sahrawi, told AFP he was a free man in Mali.
Mauritanian security forces have regularly been targeted in attacks, which forced the cancellation in 2008 of the Dakar Rally that has since been held in South America.
AQIM has previously claimed responsibility for the killing of an American aid worker shot dead in June last year in a Nouakchott street.
Mauritania's first suicide bombing occurred in August last year when an attacker detonated a belt packed with explosives outside the French embassy in Nouakchott. Two French policemen and a Mauritanian citizen were injured.
Four French tourists were killed by suspected Islamic extremists in December 2007.
Shocked by these killings and the recent execution of Germaneau, France has pledged increased security cooperation in the region.
Ministers from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania and Niger met in March to discuss increased cooperation against the growing threat of AQIM and the group's apparent ease of movement throughout the vast semi-desert Sahel region.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
