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Al-Qaeda claim killing of American NGO worker in Mauritania

25/06/2009

In an audio statement aired Thursday (June 25th) on Qatari satellite TV channel Aljazeera, al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for killing American aid worker Christopher Leggett in Nouakchott on Tuesday, AP reported. Leggett ran a computer and language school in the Mauritanian capital and worked with Noura, a charitable organisation dedicated to supporting women's NGOs.

The al-Qaeda statement claimed Leggett was killed for "Christianizing activities". Eyewitnesses, however, said the attack looked like a botched kidnapping rather than a targeted assassination.