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Four suspected Bin Laden followers arrested

Four suspected members of Osama bin Laden's international network of Islamic militants were arrested recently in Mauritania, AFP reported a Mauritanian security source as saying on Tuesday. The arrests follow information given by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, suspected of having close links with bin Laden, under interrogation by members of Mauritania's State Security Department, AFP reported. Slahi, who was arrested by police in Dakar, Senegal on 22 January following a request for assistance from the United States, was later expelled to Mauritania where the authorities said they were working closely with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to AFP. The United States blames bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian living in exile in Afghanistan, for bomb attacks on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 which left some 224 people dead.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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