Guinea-Bissau: Situation said under control after battle near arms depot Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1905 GMT 26 Sep 03 AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Friday, September 26, 2003 Journal Code: 2131 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT Document Type: Daily Report; News Word Count: 655 (FBIS Transcribed Text) BISSAU, Sept 26 (AFP) - Two Guinea-Bissau army soldiers were killed Friday when an armed group stormed a weapons arsenal outside the capital, sparking a fierce battle with soldiers backing the junta that seized power 12 days ago, a military official said. "One of the attackers was injured and taken prisoner, but the army has brought the situation under control," Lieutenant-Colonel Antonio Indjai, the officer in charge of the barracks at Mansoa, 50 kilometers (30 miles) outside Bissau, told AFP by telephone. Military sources said the assailants -- whose exact number was not known -- raided the arsenal and stole "a few light weapons." Army spokesman Major Zamora Induta later spoke of two injured attackers, who were both taken prisoner. The two dead -- Kemo Fati and Balake Camara -- and the two injured -- brothers Malan and Mamadou Seidi -- were demobilised soldiers, he said. Asked about rumours that the assailants might have links with separatist movements from Casamance, the troubled neighbouring region of Senegal, Induta said he had no evidence about that. Mansoa is some 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the border with Senegal. The violent gun battle that broke out at around 3:00 am (0300 GMT) at the military compound had sent many local residents fleeing, still edgy after the bloodless coup in the small west African country nearly two weeks ago which toppled president Kumba Yala, a journalist for the local radio station Sol Mansi said by telephone. The Misna Roman Catholic missionary group in Rome quoted Father Davide Sciocco, who heads the diocesan-run Radio Sol Mansi, as saying the gun battle was triggered when a group of heavily armed men tried to storm the military compound, which houses an important arms and ammunition depot. By midday, residents were gradually returning to Mansoa, Radio Sol Mansi said. An AFP reporter in Bissau saw four military vehicles leaving the capital for Mansoa shortly before noon Friday, laden with soldiers and equipment. The convoy was being sent to back up soldiers in Mansoa and help in the hunt for the arsenal's assailants, a military source said. Witnesses in Mansoa said the assailants had fled in stolen vehicles towards the town of Mansaba, 30 kilometers (18 miles) outside the army barracks town. Several hundred armed men had concentrated in Mansoa since the September 14 coup, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported, quoting unnamed local sources. The military putschists, who said they ousted Yala because he had plunged the country into economic and political chaos, pledged after their takeover to hand power to a transitional civilian-led administration. On Tuesday, the junta named civilian Henrique Rosa as interim president and political leader Antonio Artur Sanha as prime minister of an interim government. While Rosa has been broadly welcomed by the main political and civic players, Sanha's appointment has been strongly contested by at least five political parties. The interim regime will be tasked with guiding the impoverished nation to democratic elections, but the putschists have warned it will take at least two years to prepare the polls. Others are pressing for a vote in less than a year. The economy of the tiny nation of 1.5 million people, in steady decline since independence from Portugal 30 years ago, has come to a virtual standstill since the coup. Portugal's foreign minister Antonio Martins da Cruz said Friday he would seek 10 million euros (11.5 million dollars) in financial aid from the European Union for Guinea-Bissau. Eighty percent of the country's population -- spread out across the territory between Senegal and Guinea, and on an archipelago of around two dozen islands -- live on less than a dollar a day. (Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse) Inquiries regarding use may be directed to NTIS, US Dept. of Commerce.