Mali’s prime minister arrested by junta

BAMAKO, Mali – A policy officer and an intelligence official have confirmed that Mali’s prime minister was arrested at his home late Monday night by the soldiers who helped lead a recent coup.

Both the officer and the official, who requested anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak on the matter, said the soldiers drove Prime Minister Cheikh Modibo Diarra to the Kati military barracks, under the orders of coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo.

For several weeks, tension has been mounting between the soldiers who led Mali’s March 21 coup and Diarra, the civilian prime minister they were forced to appoint when they handed back power to a transitional government.

Last weekend, Diarra organized a demonstration calling for a U.N. resolution to back a planned military intervention to retake Mali’s north from armed Islamist groups.