The government said the 12 soldiers kidnapped by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb earlier this week have been beheaded. Yahia Djouadi, AQIM’s leader in the Sahara, narrowly avoided capture by a joint US, Malian, and Mauritanian force. Mauritanian security services seized the passports of several students studying at Algerian universities after suspecting them of having links with AQIM. Mauritania asked for international support to confront terrorism in West Africa.
