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NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) - Three soldiers were killed Thursday by unknown assailants in Mauritania's northern desert, a military official said.
The attack followed the Christmas Eve slaying of four French tourists who were picnicking by the roadside near Aleg, a small town 150 miles east of Nouakchott. The government blamed the murders on a terrorist "sleeper cell" affiliated with al-Qaida.
The back-to-back killings are unusual in the desert nation, a moderate Islamic republic situated on the western edge of the Sahara desert that has been relatively free of violence.
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