The bodies of 12 Mauritanian soldiers have been found decapitated after they were abducted in an ambush earlier this week.

The men were found on Saturday by the army in the open desert about 30km north of the town of Tourine - where the men were seized on Monday - a government spokesman said.

Ahmed Bemba Ould Baya, secretary-general of Mauritania's ruling High Council of State, said: "Their bodies were found this morning after a search ... they were mutilated and had their heads cut off."

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaeda's North Africa wing, had claimed responsibility for the abductions.

Several websites published a statement from the group on Wednesday claiming that they undertook the attack.

The statement said that the 12 soldiers had been taken prisoner and that: "This jihadist operation targeted the allies of the Americans, the crusaders on Islamic Mauritanian territory occupied by infidels."

Low-level violence has been ongoing for more than a year in Mauritania.

The government has blamed these attacks on groups linked to al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb killed four French tourists last year and has called for a holy war to avenge the overthrow of the democratically elected President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi by the military.