The leader of a coup attempt in northwest African Mauritania was killed during two days of clashes between government forces and insurgents, the Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera reported Tuesday. President Maaouya Ould Taya announced on Monday that he had quelled the coup attempt mounted by an armoured army unit on Sunday. A government source earlier said that former colonel Jedai Salid Ould Hanana masterminded the insurgency. He was ousted from the army last year for supporting former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, and is thought to have opposed Ould Taya’s pro-western and pro-Israeli policies. Full Story