Malian Soldiers Attack Capital in Suspected Coup Attempt

BAMAKO, Mali (Agence France-Presse) — In what appeared to be a coup attempt, renegade Malian soldiers traded gunfire with troops outside the presidential palace on Wednesday and seized the state broadcasting station amid fury over the government’s handling of an uprising by Tuareg rebels.

President Amadou Toumani Touré was holed up inside the palace, an adviser said, and he was under the protection of his elite unit of paratroopers.

“We are in control of the presidential palace,” a member of the presidential guard said by telephone. “People are shooting towards us and we are returning fire.”

Soldiers have been pleading for better resources and weapons to fight the rebels. Many soldiers were believed to have died in fighting with the rebels over the last two months, although no official death toll was available, and up to 200,000 people have fled the violence.

Mr. Touré is due to step down before an April 29 presidential election.

The Tuareg rebellion is part of a decades-old bid for independence, but the recent offensive, the first since 2009, was heightened by the return of heavily armed men who fought in Libya last year for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi before he was ousted and killed.

France and the United States expressed alarm at unfolding events and urged a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

“The situation is currently unclear and unfolding quickly,” said a State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, urging American citizens to stay indoors. “We believe that grievances should be addressed through dialogue, not through violence,” she said.

The anger erupted earlier in the day when the new defense minister, Sadio Gassama, visited the Kati military camp outside the capital to appease tensions over the continuing insurgency.

His efforts failed and soldiers protested, firing shots into the air and demanding proper weapons with which to face the rebels, who have seized several towns in the north.

“We want ammunition to go and fight the Tuareg rebels,” a corporal at the Kati camp said. “Enough is enough.”

A nomadic community of some 1.5 million people, Tuareg of various tribes are scattered in several countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Niger and Mali.