Mauritania says 3 escaped terrorist prisoners killed

KIGALI, Rwanda

The Mauritanian government said Saturday that three terrorist prisoners who escaped from prison were killed during a recapture operation.

“Three terrorists were killed while the fourth was arrested in an operation,” the defense and interior ministries announced in a statement.

The three were part of a group of four terrorists who escaped from a prison in Nouakchott last Sunday.

One officer was killed -- one of the heroes of the variant forces, it added.

The operation reportedly took place overnight Friday in the heartland desert area of Adrar.

The government said the operation was conducted in close coordination with air and ground forces which led to locating the terrorists in a rugged mountainous area.

During the ground operation with police units specializing in combating terrorism, "officers came under heavy fire,” according to the statement.

The interior Ministry said two guards were killed and two injured during the breakout.

Mauritania has not witnessed insurgency which has plagued the Sahel region.

Two of the prisoners had reportedly been sentenced to death, while the other two were awaiting trial on charges of belonging to a terror organization.

One was identified as Saleck Ould Cheikh, who had been on death row since 2011 for his role in the assassination of former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.

Cheikh had escaped in 2015 before he was re-arrested after three weeks of hiding in Guinea Bissau and sent back to Mauritania.

The second prisoner on death row reportedly participated in attacks on the army in the north in 2005.

Since 1987, Mauritania has not enforced the death penalty.\Mauritania was regularly targeted by terror attacks in the 2000s.