World IN BRIEF : COMORO ISLANDS : Officer Claims He Controls Nation
Moroni, the capital of the Comoro Islands, was quiet, three days after a coup led by foreign mercenaries, and a military officer claimed that he--and not the soldiers of fortune--controls the archipelago off Africa’s eastern coast. Capt. Combo Ayouba, imprisoned until Thursday’s takeover because of his part in a 1992 coup attempt, said he plotted from his cell, using emissaries to hire French mercenary Bob Denard to lead the putsch. The army now appears to be firmly in support of the coup. In the capital, a few rebel soldiers guarded key installations, such as the state radio station.
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