Troops have seized power in the northwest African country of Mauritania, overthrowing President Maaouiya Ould Taya while he was abroad.
Troops took over the armed forces headquarters and state radio and television buildings at dawn, surrounding ministries and the presidential palace in the capital Nouakchott.
City residents later expressed support for the coup leaders in apparently spontaneous protests, but the US joined other nations and multilateral bodies in voicing strong condemnation.
A military source close to the coup leaders, who asked not to be named, said a number of senior officers had been arrested, including the army chief of staff.
He said however that no members of the ousted government had been detained.
Mr Ould Taya, a former army chief of staff who ruled with an iron fist since staging a bloodless coup in 1984, meanwhile landed in Niger.
He had been in Saudi Arabia for the funeral of King Fahd, and was prevented from returning home when the military closed down Nouakchott airport.
In June 2003, an uprising failed to unseat him; it was followed in August and September of last year by two more alleged coup attempts.
Mr Ould Taya was a strong ally of the United States at the helm of Mauritania, which sits on some one billion barrels of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas, but has scarcely begun production.
