Al Qaeda's North Africa wing has called for Jihad in Mauritania to establish Islamic rule after a military junta ousted the country's elected president. "Raise the banner of jihad and let us bleed and have our limbs severed until we bring back a caliphate styled along the lines of The Prophet's way," the leader of the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, Abu Mus'ab Abd el-Wadoud, said in a statement posted on the Internet on Tuesday.
According to Reuters, Abd el-Wadoud said the troops who toppled President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in the northwest African state last week were probably acting upon a green light from "infidel states; America, France and Israel". He called on followes: "Wake up and prepare for the war; the cross is marching towards you."
Tuesday's Web statement condemned what it called "apostate regimes ruling the Islamic Maghreb". "Those regimes that enslave their people have always raised the banner of democracy in their fight against Islam, while people see that most of them assumed power through military coups," el-Wadoud said.
Meanwhile, the State Council, which seized power in Mauritania, announced Tuesday a "constitutional ordinance" to define its powers. "The present constitutional ordinance is to define the temporary powers of the State Council," the junta said in a statement, according to AFP.
The text issued Tuesday gives the state council "the necessary powers to reorganise and manage state affairs during the period needed for the organising of presidential elections... in the shortest possible time." It adds that the powers of the president as defined by the Mauritanian constitution "will be exercised together by the State Council" comprised of 11 military men including the junta leader Ould Abdel Aziz.
The leader is also given the power to appoint a prime minister and military officials and civil servants in Maurtania.
