The leader of a coup that ousted Mauritania’s elected government gave up power Wednesday, freeing him to seek the presidency in balloting aimed at returning civilian rule.

Israeli foreign ministry officials say the government of Mauritania is expelling the Israeli ambassador and his staff from the overwhelmingly Muslim West African nation.

Mauritania’s foreign minister says his nation is suspending diplomatic ties with Israel over the fighting in Gaza.

Security forces early Sunday forcibly removed Mauritania’s recently deposed president from the village where he had been under house arrest, his daughter said.

The daughter of Mauritania’s recently deposed president says security forces have taken her father from his village in the middle of the night.

The leaders of Mauritania’s recent coup have agreed to free the country’s president, who has been under house arrest since the military takeover four months ago, international officials said Sunday.

The torture of prisoners including al-Qaida suspects has increased under the military junta that rules Mauritania, where security forces routinely abuse detainees with electric shocks, burnings, beatings and sexual violence, an international rights group

The military junta that ousted Mauritania’s president released the former leader Thursday in response to international pressure, police and his family said.

Police fired tear gas and used batons to beat back union activists demanding the reinstatement of Mauritania’s deposed president.

Suspected al-Qaida militants killed 12 Mauritanian soldiers Monday, two senior officials said. The attack, which came after the terror group promised to avenge the country’s recent coup, was the worst suffered by the military in three years.