Mali President, Dioncounda Traore Beaten Up By Angry Protesters

Mali's caretaker president Dioncounda Traore was beaten up and hospitalised after hundreds of protesters stormed his palace on Monday to demand his resignation, officials and protesters said.

A spokesman for the soldiers behind a March 22 coup said Traore's close-protection officers had killed three people in the attack, in which protesters entered parts of the palace compound unopposed and tore up pictures of Traore.

Mali is struggling to cope with the aftermath of the coup and a subsequent rebellion in its desert north. Sanogo agreed at the weekend to drop objections to Traore remaining in charge but crowds encouraged by pro-coup politicians took to the streets on Monday calling for him to quit.

Resolving the political crisis in the capital Bamako is a prerequisite for foreign help in efforts to retake control of the north, now in the hands of separatist and Islamist rebels, including some al Qaeda fighters.

"He (Traore) has just been rushed to hospital ... They beat him seriously and tore his clothes," Bakary Mariko, spokesman for the CNRDRE body of soldiers who last month formally agreed to allow a transition back to civilian rule, said by telephone.

"There were three dead and some injured by gunshot ... Dioncounda's security shot at people," he said, adding that protesters left the palace by mid-afternoon.

Sekou Sidibe, a witness, said Traore received injuries to the face and had been escorted to hospital by bodyguards. An aide to Traore said later he had left hospital and returned to his personal residence. It was not immediately clear when he would return to the palace compound.

"I am ashamed to relate what happened this morning," interim Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra told state television later.