By Noiselle Champagne NOUAKCHOTT, April 7 (Reuters) - Mauritanian police clashed with Islamist gunmen in the capital Nouakchott on Monday, days after the escape of a suspected al Qaeda militant accused of killing four French tourists, a gendarmerie colonel said. A Reuters reporter saw scores of police and gendarmerie officers, some with assault rifles, others wielding heavier guns mounted on vehicles, on a road leading north from Nouakchott as shots rang out after dark on Monday. "It's a clash with the Salafists (Islamists)," said a gendarmerie colonel at the scene. Nearby residents who poured out of their homes to watch the drama unfold, some trying to take photos of police with their cellphones, said one dead body had been carried away as well as several wounded. Some said the dead person was a policeman, but that could not be immediately confirmed. Arabic TV stations Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya reported that people were killed and wounded in the shooting, but gave no precise figures. Al Arabiya linked the shooting to the escape of Sidi Ould Sidna, who gave police the slip at the city's main law courts last Wednesday after requesting he be left alone to pray. Sidna, 20, is accused of murdering four French tourists as they enjoyed a Christmas Eve picnic by a roadside in southern Mauritania, one of several attacks in recent months which have fuelled fears al Qaeda cells in Algeria and Morocco are moving operations further south. Al Jazeera's correspondent in Nouakchott told Reuters police had encircled a handful of suspected Islamist militants at the scene of Monday's shooting, not far from the city centre, although it was not clear whether Sidna was among them. Sidna's escape was a major embarrassment to the West African country. Authorities quickly suspended officials connected with the case and took the investigating magistrate, who conducted a hearing with Sidna just before he escaped, off the case. Impoverished Mauritania has tried to reassure tourists, especially from former colonial ruler France. But the annual Dakar rally, which was due to pass through Mauritania in January, was cancelled for the first time in its 30-year history after the event's French organisers received threats from "terrorist organisations". (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Writing by Alistair Thomson, editing by Mary Gabriel)
Protesters burn tyres on the streets in Mozambique's capital Maputo in this February 5, 2008 file picture. Anger over high food and fuel costs has spawned a rash of violent unrest ...
