Thousands of Mauritanians have marched through the capital to noisily denounce a failed attempt to overthrow a pro-Western president who has locked up Islamists and courted Israel.
President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya returned overnight yesterday to his palace, which had fallen to renegade soldiers for a time during the most violent attempt to seize power since the northwest African country won independence from France in 1960.
The failed coup came in the wake of arrests of dozens of Islamic leaders following the US-led war in Iraq, but one detained Islamist condemned the action in a message from his cell. The plotters never had chance to state their grievances.
"The death of civilians and the innocent for whatever reason is prohibited by Islam," Cheik Mohammed Hassan Ould Dedew wrote in a note sent out of the prison through his brother.
Thousands of the president's supporters marched through the streets, chanting and bearing his portrait above their heads.
"We were in deep trouble for 48 hours. Now it's over and we are happy," said Si Hamadou, one of the impoverished desert state's many unemployed.
Doubt hung over the fate of suspected coup leader Sala Ould Henena, who had been fired from the army after stirring opposition to the Israeli ties. Some officials believed he was dead, others that he might only have been wounded.
Soldiers said they were still hunting for any rebels who escaped and had gone to ground. One of the captured men led them to a cache of arms near the central market, but army officers said some 1,500 weapons were missing after the uprising.
The coup attempt's timing, after the arrest of 32 Islamists charged with threatening national security, has led to speculation of a link.
But the almost entirely Muslim country has plenty of other divisions that fuel internal rivalries - both black African and Arab populations are further divided into tribes and clans.
Henena's known anger at the links with Israel is shared by many in the country. Mauritania in 1999 became only the third Arab League state to establish full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Israel gives a bit of economic help, but diplomats say Israelis assist with security advice to Taya - who took power in a 1984 coup and has since won elections as a civilian.
Some Mauritanians suspect Taya also courted Israel as a way of appearing more moderate to the West after backing Iraq in the first Gulf War. Politicians linked to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have been detained since he was ousted.
Authorities have yet to give figures for the number who died on either side in the coup attempt. Nor have they said how many rebel soldiers, mostly from an armoured unit, had surrendered or been arrested.