Police have arrested about 10 soldiers, including two army captains, on the separatist Comoros island of Anjouan after an attempted coup, AFP reported on Wednesday. Major Mohamed Bacar, the head of the army's police wing on Anjouan, told the island's radio that while some soldiers were detained, "others turned themselves to loyalist forces on (Wednesday) morning". Diplomatic sources in the Comoros capital, Moroni, told IRIN on Wednesday that the triumvirate which had been ruling Anjouan since a 9 August coup were once again in control. The two captains arrested were both members of the Rapid Intervention Section (SIR) which served as the personal guard of Lieutenant-Colonel Said Abeid Abderemane, who ran Anjouan until he was ousted on 9 August. Reports said the army police were still looking for Major Combo Ayoub, the Anjouan-born deputy head of the Comoran army's general staff, who was blamed for instigating the coup attempt on behalf of the Moroni government. Anjouan unilaterally declared independence from the rest of the archipelago in 1997 and diplomatic bids, led by the Organisation of African Unity, to get it back into the fold and establish a loose confederation among the islands have constantly run into trouble.
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