NOUAKCHOTT, June 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Sporadic gunfire rang through the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott Sunday, June 8, with looters reported rampaging although the government of this northwest African Islamic republic claimed to have put down an attempted coup.

Shellfire shook the walls of houses, according to one resident who said it sounded like tank fire, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Al-Jazeera reported that the rebels took control of the Presidential palace.

A gendarmerie officer was quoted as saying a pro-Baathist tank colonel dismissed from the army last year had led the rebellion.

None of the mutineers had identified themselves by late Sunday.

The reported coup attempt came amid heightened tension in the vast Sahara desert country of 2.7 million people after the government cracked down on what it called Islamic “militants”.

Information was sparse about the situation on the ground and confusion and rumors were rife, including one that two top military officers were either killed or wounded.

According to another rumor, President Maaouiya Ould Taya had taken refuge in the French embassy. But officials in Nouakchott and diplomats in Paris denied this.

Ould Taya was safe and well, government sources said.

Locals told journalists however they had been able freely to walk into the grounds of the presidential palace, which were no longer guarded.

But no independent source could confirm that mutineers had managed to penetrate the palace.

An unidentified senior military officer in Nouakchott was quoted as saying the coup had been led by Salah Ould Hnana, a tank colonel with alleged Baathist views, who was dismissed from the army last year.

The Moroccan news agency Map reported the gendarmerie officer as saying Ould Hnana had accomplices in tank units and the air force.

Some witnesses said a plane had flown over the city several times after fighting began, repeatedly drawing anti-aircraft fire.

The alleged coup leader was known for having Baathist ideas, Map quoted the unidentified officer as saying. The deposed Baath Party in Iraq was the power base of former ruler Saddam Hussein.

Pro-government forces were Sunday awaiting the arrival of reinforcements, the gendarmerie officer was also quoted as saying.

Hospital officials said there were numerous civilians among victims of the fighting.

Despite continuing heavy gunfire Sunday, sources close to the government insisted that the coup attempt had failed.

State radio said soldiers loyal to the pro-Western Arab president had crushed the attempt.

"Remain calmly in your homes," the state radio told listeners. The situation had been brought under control "under the enlightened guidance" of President Maaouiya Ould Taya.

But the radio later went off air.

Fighting erupted at about 1:00 am (0100 GMT) Sunday, with automatic gunfire and explosions reported near the presidential building and army headquarters in the city center, as well as at a tank base and the radio and television stations.

Witnesses said the state radio building and the education ministry had been ransacked, blaming prisoners who reportedly escaped from cells when prison guards abandoned their posts in the chaos.

Sporadic fighting continued Sunday afternoon near an army barracks where the would-be putschists were based, a government source said.

At the state television and radio station, a person who answered the phone told AFP fighting there had stopped, after earlier reports said a tank was on fire outside.

"There is no problem now. We are from the presidential army unit. The premises have been pacified," he said.

Last Tuesday, 36 people were charged in Mauritania with offences from "plotting against the constitutional order" to membership of illegal organizations.

Official media have launched a campaign against Islamic “extremism”, with political and religious commentators stating that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was "alive and well and living in Mauritania".

Last month Mauritanian Prime Minister Cheikh El-Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna warned that extremists hoped to use Mauritania as a new base, after being driven from other countries.

While officially an Islamic republic, Mauritania has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1999 and since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States has repeated its determination to combat international terrorism.

There is widespread opposition in Mauritania to Ould Taya's links with Israel.