Mutinous Soldiers Seize Mali

A military coup is under way in Mali, as renegade soldiers stormed the presidential palace in the capital of Bamako today, and soon afterward appeared on state TV to announce that they had booted the president and taken over the country, the BBC reports. The soldiers said they were suspending the constitution, dissolving its institutions and instituting a nationwide curfew. They said they were taking power because of President Amadou Toumani Toure's failure to defeat a rebellion by the Taureg tribes in the north, the AP reports.

The military “has decided to assume its responsibilities and end the incompetent and disavowed regime of Amadou Toumani Toure,” the troops said, adding that it “does not in any way aim to confiscate power, and we solemnly swear to return power to a democratically elected president as soon as national unity and territorial integrity are established.” The mutiny comes just a month before Toure was set to leave office legally. (More Mali stories.)