Al Qaeda suicide bomber shot dead in Mauritania

A suicide bomber was shot and killed as he attempted to drive a truck loaded with explosives into an army barracks in Mauritania today.

The truck blew up just outside the barracks in the town of Nema, about 680 miles east of the capital, Nouakchott.

The attack is believed to have been a revenge bid by al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQMI, after a raid on one of their camps last month.

Last month the group executed a Frenchman kidnapped in April after Mauritanian and French commandos stormed a terror camp in Mali. AQMI had promised to avenge the death of seven of their men in the attack.

Two days ago the group released two Spanish aid workers who had been kidnapped while delivering supplies in the country last November. In a recording sent to newspaper El Pais, AQMI said the hostages were released because a part of their demands had been met, suggesting that the Spanish government had paid a ransom.

Experts say multimillion-dollar ransoms being paid for the release of European hostages has allowed the organisation to recruit better-trained fighters and to launch more sophisticated attacks.