Mutinying soldiers led armed clashes in Niger’s capital on Saturday, alarming residents, but the ruling junta said it had largely wrested back control after hours of heavy exchanges around some of its most sensitive sites.While the fighting had subsided later on Saturday, the rebel troops were said by a regional security source and an African diplomatic source to be holed up in an airbase near the capital’s airport.Niger’s ruling junta declared, in a statement read on state television, that it “gradually took back control” after hours of clashes.When the fighting broke out, shortly after midnight, soldiers blocked access to the presidential palace and to the national television station, Tele Sahel, which went off the air for just over an hour, before being restored around 10am.“There was an attempt by insurgents from the Nigerien armed forces to enter the presidential palace,” a security source said, adding that “they were pushed back by the presidential guard”.Niger’s defence minister, General Salifou Mody, said in the statement on state television that a group of soldiers held some troops hostage at a barracks in Niamey and opened fire at “certain sensitive sites” in the city, without specifying which ones.