20100918
reuters

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritanian military forces killed 12 members of al Qaeda's North African wing and suffered two fatalities in fighting in the desert along the border with Mali, a Mauritanian security source said on Saturday.

The clash is the latest sign of an escalation in the battle between Saharan countries and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the chief suspect in the kidnapping of seven foreigners, including five French citizens, in Niger on Thursday.

The fighting continued on Saturday as Mauritanian forces encircled around 20 AQIM vehicles in the border area, the Mauritanian source told Reuters. In addition to those killed, four Mauritanian troops were also wounded in the fighting.

"The operation was launched because the opportunity presented itself. It was not planned long in advance," said a second security source in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott who knew the background to the mission.

The French Foreign Ministry said there was no connection to Thursday's kidnappings, in which a French employee of nuclear firm Areva and his wife were seized.

"This action is independent of the kidnapping of Areva employees. There are no French forces on the ground," a ministry spokesman said in Paris.

The seven hostages are believed to have been taken to Mali, a source in the Nigerien military told Reuters after an army search operation on Friday.

Security experts say al Qaeda allies are building a base in the desert region that straddles the porous and thinly policed borders of Algeria, Mali, Niger and Mauritania after being squeezed out of traditional patches along Algeria's coast.