(Recasts with extradition of suspects) By Alberto Dabo BISSAU, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau extradited five suspected members of al Qaeda to Mauritania on Saturday, a day after they were arrested in connection with the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania on Christmas Eve. Three attackers, whom Mauritanian officials have said were suspected Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda, shot dead the four French tourists and injured a fifth as they ate a picnic on a road in southern Mauritania almost three weeks ago. Police in Guinea-Bissau arrested the five Mauritanian suspects on Friday and said two of them had admitted belonging to al Qaeda. At least three were wanted in direct connection with the murder of the French tourists, officials said. "Guinea-Bissau will pay for what it has done," one of the five Mauritanians said as he was bundled in handcuffs into a plane in Bissau. "Watch out! If I'd had a gun I would have killed you all," he shouted to members of the security forces around him, speaking in the local Creole language. The five men were taken into police custody on arrival in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott a few hours later. Bissau police on Friday arrested the first two men, whom they identified as Mohamed Ould Chabarnou and Sidi Ould Sidna, at the request of the French authorities, who helped track them down. The three others were arrested hours later. "The first two suspects have admitted that they are fighters of al Qaeda, that their motivations are political, and that they are hostile to the West," the deputy director of Guinea-Bissau's judicial police, Edmundo Mendes, said. "The three new suspects were detained in a Toyota Land Cruiser while trying to photograph French police. We have information which suggests that one of the three was involved in the killing of the four French tourists," he said. "SLEEPER CELL" The killings raised fears that Islamic extremists linked to al Qaeda, who have carried out attacks in Morocco and Algeria, may be trying to extend their operations southwards into Sub-Saharan West Africa. The incident led to the cancellation of the 2008 Lisbon-Dakar rally due to take place in January. Mauritania lies on the western edge of the Sahara, straddling black and Arab West Africa. Guinea-Bissau lies to the south of Mauritania's southern neighbour Senegal. "It is really worrying for Guinea-Bissau because it could be that al Qaeda has networks in the country," Mendes said. Mauritanian prosecutors have said at least two of the three suspected killers were linked to an Algeria-based group formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The GSPC changed its name to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb a year ago after allying itself to mainstream al Qaeda. "They are a sleeper cell," Mauritania's presidential spokesman, Abdallahi Mamadou Ba, told Reuters when asked about the suspected killers, without giving further details. Regional diplomats and security sources believe al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its allies have been running mobile camps in the Sahara, often little more than a few jeeps around a watering hole where recruits are taught guerrilla tactics then sent home as "sleepers" to await further instructions. Three days after the French were slain, gunmen killed three army soldiers in the remote north of Mauritania, bordering Algeria and Western Sahara. A spokesman for al Qaeda's North African branch later said the group had killed the Mauritanian soldiers, but made no mention of the French tourists. (Additional reporting by Ibrahima Sylla in Nouakchott; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (R) shakes hands with United Nation's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as they pose for a photograph after their meeting at the presidential palace in Algiers December 18, ...
