Mali leader in hospital after attack

Dioncounda Traore, Mali's interim president, has been taken to hospital with a head wound after being attacked by demonstrators, medical sources say. Demonstrators attacked him at his office on Monday, knocking him unconscious. Thousands of supporters of March's coup marched in protest at a deal for Traore to remain in office for a year, Traore's mandate was due to expire on Monday. But West African leaders reached a deal with coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo for Traore to stay on to organise elections and end the Tuareg northern rebellion. Traore was brought to the Point G Hospital, said Sekou Yattara, a medical student there. The occupation of the presidential palace came after protesters also paralysed traffic and blocked bridges with burning tyres in the capital Bamako. Traore had not been using offices in the palace itself as that building was ransacked during a coup in March. Demonstrators chanted slogans hostile to the 15-state West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which had threatened sanctions against Sanogo unless he allows Traore to remain in charge. "We don't want Dioncounda" and "Down with ECOWAS" chanted some in the crowd. Martin Vogl, a journalist based in Mali told Al Jazeera: "Sources in the hospital told me Traore had head injuries, it is likely he had head injuries." "What will be interesting to see if the president will go back to his job, and what will the junta leaders now do," said Vogl. Traore became interim president following a deal, negotiated by Mali's neighbors with the military officers that led the March 21 coup. The unexpected military takeover ousted the country's democratically elected president, just months before he was due to step down following the end of his legal term. Traore is a labour activist turned political grandee who before his appointment last month as caretaker president was national parliament speaker. He held various ministerial jobs in the 1990's and is seen by his critics as part of a self-serving political elite that has misruled the country for years. ECOWAS has pledged to send a 3,000-strong force to Mali to help it restore its authority in the north, but it has not made any commitment to actually send troops to fight in the north and its precise mandate remains under discussion.