An attempted coup against Mauritania's president, Maaouya Sid Ahmed Ould Taya, was put down after heavy fighting in the centre of Nouakchott, the capital.

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The overthrow of Mauritanian president Maaouiy Ould Sid Ahmed Taya last month by a military junta calling itself the Council for Justice and Democracy passed almost without comment among Western observers.

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Hard to say, except that it was the Presidential Guard of ousted President Maaouya Ould Sid-Ahmed(ph) Taya who apparently launched this coup d'etat, and he himself is a former coup leader.

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