Video: Amid reports of looting US condemns Mali coup Renegade Malian soldiers declared on state television on Thursday they had seized power in the West African state in protest at the government's failure to quell a nomad-led rebellion in the north. The coup has been fronted by soldiers of the rank of captain or lower and, if successful, will add a new layer of insecurity to a Saharan region battling al Qaeda agents and a flood of weapons trafficked from Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Heavy gunfire overnight was reported as soldiers attacked the Presidential palace. Shops were closed on Thursday, and many petrol stations were looted. "They (soldiers) came, they starting shooting bullets to make people leave so they can refill their tanks with unleaded and diesel, there look the concrete proof," said Ibrahima Konte, an airport worker from Bamako, showing bullets in his hands. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a press conference that the United States had joined African Union and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) in denouncing the power grab: "We have called for calm, we have called for restoration of the civilian government under constitutional rule without delay."