The2007 killing of French tourists inMauritania happened on 24 December 2007.[1] The attack happened nearAleg, 250 km east of the capitalNouakchott.[2]
Four of them were killed and the fifth was seriously injured.[3] There was one survivor; the victims were his two adult sons, brother, and a friend.[4]
Mauritanian authorities arrested nine people on 7 January 2008.[5] An assault rifle was recovered by police from a location close to the scene of the killings.[6] The Mauritanian interior minister blamed aterrorist sleeper cell for the killings.[7] Authorities say suspects are members of an extremist group linked to al-Qaida.[8]
One of the suspects arrested in January, Sidi Ould Sidna, escaped from the police in March but was arrested again in April.[9] Sidna had trained with the groupAl-Qaeda in the Maghreb, which confirmed Sidna was affiliated with their organization.[10] In 2010, three men who claimed to be "soldiers ofAl-Qaeda", Sidi Ould Sidna, Mohamed Ould Chabarnou, and Maarouf Ould Haiba, were sentenced to death by a Mauritanian court for the attack. Since Mauritania has not used thedeath penalty since the 1980s, their death sentence will likely be commuted to an extended prison sentence on appeal.[11][needs update]
