NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - Mauritanian authorities nabbed one of the suspected masterminds behind at least two of the three attempts to oust President Maaouiya Ould Taya in 15 months.
Former major Saleh Ould Hanena has been alleged by authorities to be the ringleader of the "Cavaliers of Change" -- a group of disgruntled military officers angry at Ould Taya's pro-Western policies and diplomatic recognition of Israel -- that has been blamed for putsches last month and in June of last year.
Ould Hanena was arrested in Rosso not far from the border with Senegal, according to Communications Minister and government spokesman Hamoud Ould Abdi.
Many residents of the capital of Nouakchott -- scene of 36 hours of gun battles that claimed 15 lives and injured 69 in the coup attempt last year -- took to the streets with portraits of Ould Taya in officially sanctioned demonstrations.
Since officials announced late last month that the security services had foiled a coup attempt and seized a large cache of assault weapons, a hunt has been mounted for Ould Hanena, with his picture regularly broadcast on television and roadblocks set up across the country.
Ould Hanena was dishonorably discharged from the armed forces in 2000.
One of his comrades in arms, Captain Abderahmane Ould Mini, was captured after security services announced they had foiled the coup attempt last month.
Officials in Nouakchott have accused Libya and Burkina Faso of being behind the coup attempts, supplying weapons and other equipment.
Mauritanian authorities also said in August they uncovered a plot by a group of officers to seize power when President Ould Taya was travelling abroad, but have yet to link it to the Cavaliers of Change.
Mauritania, a mainly Muslim country which is the size of Spain and France combined, has over the past several years moved to strengthen ties with the United States, offering itself as a base for a major anti-terrorism military program stretching across northwest Africa known as the Pan-Sahel initiative.
The Taya government also established relations with Israel in 1999, much to the outrage of the opposition and the growing population of Islamists in the country of 2.7 million people.