Police in Mauritania accidentally wounded two civilians Wednesday during a search for al-Qaida-linked gunmen believed connected to the killing of four French tourists in December, witnesses said.

An Associated Press reporter saw about 40 anti-terrorist police encircle a house in the capital where several terror suspects were thought to be holed up. When the officers stormed the house, they opened fire on three men inside who they later discovered were unarmed civilians.

A senior police officer at the scene said the operation had been based on faulty intelligence. He declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Four French tourists were gunned down Dec. 24 on the side of a Mauritanian highway where they had stopped to have a picnic near the town of Aleg, about 155 miles south of Nouakchott. Mauritanian officials say the men behind the attack are linked to an al-Qaida-affiliated terror cell headquartered in neighboring Algeria.

On Monday, police exchanged gunfire at another house in Nouakchott with three suspects in the tourist killings. A policeman and an alleged terrorist died in the clash, and another suspect was wounded.

The wounded man, identified as Ahmed Ould Radhi, was reported to be in a coma at a military hospital. Judge Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Tiyib said Radhi was an expert in making explosives.

Among those believed to have escaped Monday was Sidi Ould Sidna, who had been arrested in January in connection with the tourist killings but had escaped from his guards at a courthouse last week.

The tourist attack and a subsequent assault on a Mauritanian military outpost led organizers of the Dakar Rally to cancel the trans-Saharan road race this year.