French and Kenya Attacks in Somalia Support Al Shabaab's Warrior Culture

The international community is counterattacking against al Shabaab, but the methods in use right now will give al Shabaab life, when the group was starving in place, about to become irrelevant. Now, they will work the Jihadi online networks, call on their al Qaeda recruiters, and Ikhwan funders, and be revived.

Al Shabaab is a warrior cult. Their culture fades when their is no enemy to fight. In the Somalia regions where al Shabaab has ruled, their administration became increasingly oppressive against the people they rule because their warriors had no one to fight. They had to manufacture crises to justify the existence of their fighters.

Eroding the foundations of War in Somalia

1.  Hunt the all Qaeda Culture Carriers, leave the people and Muslims alone.
2.  Develop a simple Clan-based government, with a federal military subject to the central government, structured to de-emphasize clan roots. This gives their warriors a place to go and  strip the local clans of their fighters; perhaps give them AU or UN missions to support.
3.  Put a plan in place to get this done, with a time table.Include a legislative agenda, keep the promises you make.

Every warrior cult in history either took over the world or were wiped out
-Shimron Issachar

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A FRENCH fighter jet struck a rebel base near the militias-bastion port city of Kismayu yesterday, as Kenyan and Somali troops edged closer to another town hoping to strike a quick blow against al Shabaab. The French naval gunship bombarded the town of Kuday, south of Kismayu on Saturday. France joined the operation against the al Shabaab, a few days after pledging to support the push by Kenya to rid Somalia of the rebel group.

• Frenchwoman Marie Dedieu is among four tourists and aid workers who were abducted by people linked to al-Shabaab. 
• She died after her captors withheld her medication for cancer and heart problems. 
• The gang later asked to be paid to release her body. 
• "A jet bombarded an al Shabaab base near the port. It dropped a huge shell, flew past, came and then dropped another shell," Kismayu resident Mahmoud Hassan told Reuters. 
• "The whole town shook. We've never heard anything like it. Everyone ran away," he said.

A labourer at the harbour said the militants had ordered people to run to their homes. "Al Shabaab fighters deserted the port but besieged the areas around the base," Hared Ali told Reuters. An al Shabaab official who declined to be named said a Kenyan jet had also struck two bases in Kismayu. "There were no casualties. We fired at the plane after the second bombardment and it has not come back," the senior official told Reuters from southern Somalia.

The US yesterday said it was discussing how to assist Kenya militarily and financially in its fight against al-Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia. "We are talking with the Kenyans right now to figure out where they need help," US ambassador Scott Gration told the Financial Times in an interview at his residence in Nairobi. "We are looking to see how, as an ally in this conflict on terrorism, can we help the Kenyans," said Ambassador Gration, a former Air Force fighter pilot and presidential adviser, adding that the US is considering assisting with training and equipment.

The rebels have meanwhile reinforced their defences in the town of Afmadow, a strategic transit point for goods trafficked illegally through Kismayu, al Shabaab's centre of operations. Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula said al Shabaab militants were on the run after Kenya deployed more troops and struck rebel targets by air to secure its border from the rebels.

Wetang'ula said the military was making gains against the insurgents in southern Somalia. "We've made tremendous progress and al Shabaab are definitely on the run. They are looking weaker by the day," he told reporters after an emergency meeting of regional group Igad in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Somalia government troops say the aim of the operation is to rid Kismayu of the militants, which, if achieved, would wipe out their base for logistics and recruitment. "We have so far captured Qoqani, just 120km (75 miles) west of Kismayu, where we are heading to," said Gen Yusuf Hussen Dhumal, commander of Somali government troops near Afmadow. "Our troops in Taabto and Hayo have also moved near Afmadow and are just 7km away. We wish in the coming two days to reach Afmadow ... Kenyan convoys are also with us," he told Reuters.

Residents said convoys of armoured vehicles and trucks carrying weaponry, food supplies and tents were seen leaving four military camps in Isiolo in northern Kenya on Friday and heading towards the border. Kenya says it has not encountered any resistance from the rebels and that the militias are on the run and getting weaker, but any attempt to take Afmadow, where the rebels have massed and dug trenches, could result in a significant ground battle.

Residents in Afmadow, where the rebels have hunkered down, said they heard air strikes overnight. "There are al Shabaab fighters between Hayo and Afmadow and currently it is a frontline," Afmadow resident Abdirahim Ali Abukar told Reuters. "We heard heavy bombardments yesterday afternoon and throughout the night ... but we don't know the specific area and the casualties," he said.

A Somali colonel confirmed "bombardment operations" had taken place after heavy rain hampered the ground troops' advance. "Today we have killed eight al Shabaab fighters, including four foreigners in a bombardment in Kolbio," Yusuf Abdi told Reuters, referring to a town just taken by Kenyan troops, along with the town of Oddo.

On Saturday, the Kenyan military said it had moved beyond Oddo and that it had launched an air strike on Munarani, 10 km from Oddo, hitting an al Shabaab command centre. Kenya is the latest of Somalia's neighbours to intervene militarily in a country that has not had an effective government for 20 years. The militants have vowed to bring the "flames of war" into Kenya if Nairobi refuses to withdraw its troops.

The threat of reprisal prompted the US embassy in Kenya to warn its citizens of a possible "imminent threat", with attacks possibly targeting prominent Kenyan facilities and places where foreigners tend to gather like malls and nightclubs. The British government also issued fresh travel advisory against its citizens in Kenyan over fears of terrorist attacks.

• The Foreign Office claims it has credible information that Kenya could be a victim of terrorism over the ongoing war in Somalia. "In late October we were aware of credible information suggesting the threat of a terrorist attack in Kenya," the statement on the website says. 
• The UK claims that Kenyan institutions could be targeted as could places where foreigners gather and advice its citizens against all but essential visits. "There is a high threat from terrorism in Kenya. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers."

 Regional group Igad expressed its support for Kenya's operation in Somalia and urged the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone on parts of Somalia and a blockade on Kismayu, the southern port city that serves as the rebels' nerve centre. Prime Minister Raila Odinga meanwhile called on the international community to support Kenya's war against the al Shaabab.

Speaking in Voi during a public rally, Raila criticised the international community for non-commitment to the war against al Shabaab. "We are not interested in empty talk but what we need is a hands-on approach from the international community. This is the time to know Kenya's real friends," he said. He called on the United Nations to support Kenya's bid to dismantle the al Shabaab group which he described as dangerous to the region's security.


the Rest @ AllAfrica

AQIM Demands that France Leave Afghanistan to Free Hostages

BAMAKO - Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) holding hostage four French for seven months, calls especially for the departure of French troops from Afghanistan in addition to a ransom of 90 million euros, said Saturday a source close to the mediation.

• "People of AQIM also claimed and especially the departure of French troops from Afghanistan to free the four French hostages still being held. They stressed that," said the source close to the mediation, which included elected officials and Malian Nigerian personalities.

• This requirement for a withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan had already been made twice by the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, to which AQIM has made allegiance.
• 
  
• March 21, the same source close to the mediation had told AFP that AQIM claimed "at least 90 million euros" and the "liberation of prisoners held in several countries" in exchange for the release of the French, a demand which was immediately rejected by France.
• 
  
• A group of mediators is currently in the stronghold of the kidnappers in an unnamed country in the Sahel, for a new round of negotiations, also said a Malian source close to the case. "These are long and difficult negotiations. We hope very soon to obtain, why not, the release of some hostages," the source added.
• 
  
• AQIM is holding hostage four French nationals who were among a group of seven people kidnapped Sept. 16, 2010 in Arlit, a uranium mining site in northern Niger, of a French nuclear group Areva.
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• On 24 February, three of the hostages (a French, a Togolese and a Malagasy), were released near the junction of the borders between Algeria, Mali and Niger.
• 
  
• AQIM has bases in Mali where it operates in several countries in the region of Sahel-Saharan desert where it is guilty of the attacks, carries out kidnappings, mostly of Westerners, and engaged in smuggling.
• 
  

The Rest @ Ennehar Online

Al Qaeda Tries to Leverage North Africa Unrest

DUBAI, Jan 28, 2011 (AFP) - Al-Qaeda has hailed Tunisia's uprising but also warned about an attempt to replace ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali with another "agent" of the West, the US-monitoring group SITE said on Friday.

"Your revolution was no ordinary uprising, rather it was a devastating earthquake that struck the throne of the tyrant Ben Ali... The criminal ran away in a very humiliating scene," Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said.

The United States "and France, with the infidel West, will not accept any real change that does not serve their interests in Tunisia. They are now busy planning to find an alternative agent who is acceptable to them," added the statement issued on jihadist forums on Thursday.

"France was the one that supported the tyrant Ben Ali until the last moment and supported him to the furthest extent, such that it even offered him its expertise in the field of oppression," AQIM charged.

The United States and France will "play the same dirty role in Tunisia in the future, unless the strikes of the mujahedeen... stop them," said the statement.

French officials frequently justified their support for Ben Ali because of what they deemed his effectiveness in fighting political Islam.

Paris had warm ties with Ben Ali's regime during his 23 years in power but made a U-turn after the authoritarian ruler bowed to popular protests and fled the country this month.

It was not until after Ben Ali was ousted that French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed the protest movement and the fugitive was denied refuge in France.

AQIM also criticised Saudi Arabia for hosting Ben Ali, SITE reported.
"He was given sanctuary... by the one who claims to be the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques," AQIM said of Saudi King Abdullah.

"If he had in his heart an ounce of passion for (Islam)... he would not have accepted to host on this pure land a criminal who was refused from all the nations."
Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it wanted to contribute to ending "bloodshed" in Tunisia by granting asylum to Ben Ali.

Riyadh has kept a blackout on Ben Ali's activities since his arrival on January 15 with six family members, after his ouster in a wave of protest in which dozens of people were killed.

by AFP

The Rest @ Zawya

AQIM Says it Spreads its hostages out

It appears that The 7 hostages captured by AQIM in Mali have been separated and spread out to prevent a rescue attempt.

-Shimron

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Hostages held by al-Qaeda scattered: Mali source

Seven hostages, including five French nationals, held by an al-Qaeda regional offshoot have been scattered and are no longer in Mali, a Malian source close to the case said Sunday.

"The seven hostages have been scattered and are no longer on Malian territory. We are sure of that," said the source, who added that this was likely to make it more difficult to locate them.
"There are Malian and Niger people of goodwill trying hard to obtain satisfactory results. But it's not easy," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.

The seven hostages -- five French nationals, a Togolese and a Madagascan -- were seized from Niger's uranium mining town of Arlit in September and later taken across the border into Mali.
Their abduction was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), whose leader warned France to pull its troops out of Afghanistan if it wants to see the safe return of five French hostages.

Francoise Larribe, one of the five, is suffering from cancer and had undergone chaemotherapy shortly before the kidnapping, according to her family.

AQIM in July killed a 78-year-old French hostage who was kidnapped in Niger after six of its militants were killed in a joint French-Mauritanian rescue bid.

In a tape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television last Friday, Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden bin Laden meanwhile said the release of French hostages depends on a pullout of French soldiers from Afghanistan and warned Paris of a "high price" for its policies.

[Osama Bin Laden suggested the two French Hostages in Afghanistan-it is not clear whether his ultimatum applies to the Mail captives...Shimron]


Two French journalists were seized along with three Afghan colleagues in December 2009 east of Kabul. Several other French hostages were seized last year in Niger in a kidnapping claimed by AQIM.

On the tape bin Laden, addressing the French people, said: "The refusal of your president to withdraw from Afghanistan is the result of his obedience of America, and this refusal is a green light to kill your prisoners."

He warned that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's stance would "cost him and you a high price on different fronts, inside and outside France."

The Rest @ AFP By way of Expactica

AQIM Claims French Bombing Resulted in Hostages Deaths

-01-15 14:39

Al-Qaeda says a French airstrike killed one of two young Frenchmen its fighters had kidnapped in Niger, while claiming its militants executed the other, a US monitoring group reports.",
templates:

Dubai - Al-Qaeda said a French airstrike killed one of two young Frenchmen its fighters had kidnapped in Niger, while claiming its militants executed the other, a US monitoring group reported on Saturday.

The terror network's North African branch, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, said its fighters also killed six Nigerian soldiers in the clashes a week ago, SITE Intelligence Group reported, citing an AQIM statement posted on jihadist Internet forums.

French prosecutors and anti-terror police have launched a probe into the murky circumstances of the January 8 battle in which Frenchmen Vincent Delory and Antoine de Leocour were killed along with at least seven other people, including four kidnappers and three Nigerian gendarmes.AQIM said the deaths were the result of the "foolishness of the French president (Nicholas Sarkozy) in dealing with the mujahideen, and because of his obvious devaluing the lives of his French citizens," according to SITE.

"The French president decided to commit the foolishness of military intervention to rescue the two French hostages despite the warning from the mujahideen," said the statement, which was posted online on Friday."

The French planes bombed the mujahideen's vehicles, then the mujahideen took one of the hostages away from the targeted vehicle and couldn't reach the other, who got killed by the French later by bombing and not by bullets from the mujahideen.

"The Al-Qaeda statement added that contrary to a French "lie... meant to mislead the French public opinion..., the French air force also bombed the Nigerian soldiers and killed and injured some of them!"

"The mujahideen were able to kill and injure four French special forces and kill and injure 12 from Niger. They also damaged a French helicopter."With the constant dropping of French troops from the air and the damaging of the mujahideen's vehicles as a result of the bombing, the mujahideen thought that they will not make it and so they executed the second French hostage.

"They killed him with a bullet in the head, and also decided to execute the six Niger soldiers, and they did, thanks to Allah."AQIM said the "heroic battle" resulted in the deaths of the two kidnapped Frenchmen, the killing and wounding of 22 French and Nigerian forces, a damaged helicopter and "martyrdom of two mujahideen."It said Sarkozy and his government failed to comprehend the "lesson of (Michel) Germaneau," a Frenchman AQIM claimed to have killed after a failed rescue attempt by French-backed Mauritanian forces in July last year.It also warned Sarkozy to learn from "the heinous defeat, absolute failure and heavy losses added to the record of your failures so that you may look at yourselves and your policies and remove your oppression".

The Rest @ AFP

Niger: Two AQIM Prisoners in Custody after Two French Civilians killed

Niger holding 2 suspects in French killings: sources
Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:42pm GMT

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger security forces are holding two men prisoner they believe were among a group of al Qaeda militants that kidnapped and killed two French nationals at the weekend, according to security sources.

The two Frenchmen were found dead after French special forces joined a failed attempt to rescue them in the West African state on Saturday.

"Two AQIM elements captured during clashes are being interrogated by the national guard," according to a Nigerien security source with knowledge of the case.

A second source said French police were assisting in the interrogation of the two prisoners.
The two victims were abducted from a bar in Niger's capital Niamey, bringing to eight the number of French people snatched in Niger since last April.

They were the first to be seized in Niamey, far from the lawless desert where militants, rebels and bandits operate.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Monday he was almost certain that al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was behind the incident.

Niger's government said four other militants were killed in the clashes, along with three Nigerien soldiers.

AQIM is holding another five French citizens, employees of French firms Areva and Vinci, taken from the northern mining town of Arlit in September.

AQIM also killed French tourist Michel Germaneau in July after kidnapping him in Niger three months earlier.

The Rest @ Reuters

AQIM Warns France: Deal With Usamma Ben Ladden

France told to deal with bin Laden over hostages
(AFP) – 1 day ago

PARIS — France said Friday it was working to authenticate a videotape warning Paris to deal directly with Osama bin Laden concerning five French hostages held by an Al-Qaeda offshoot in Africa.

Abdelmalek Droukdel, the head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said in the videotape message that bin Laden alone could negotiate the release of the hostages held by AQIM since September.

Droukdel, alias Abou Moussaab Abdelouadoud added in his message broadcast on Al-Jazeera Arabic Television on Thursday that "any form of negotiations on this issue in the future will be done with no one other than our Sheikh Osama bin Laden... and according to his terms".

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said that the videotape "is being authenticated now."

He told AFP that France was "fully mobilised" in an effort to secure the release of the five French hostages who were seized in Niger in September along with a Togolese and a Madagascan and are believed to be in captivity in neighbouring Mali.

According to a translation of the videotape by US monitoring group SITE Intelligence, AQIM chief Droukdel also said: "(If you) want safety for your citizens who are held captive by us, then you have to hasten and take your soldiers out of Afghanistan according to a specific timetable that you announce officially."

Bin Laden, in a recording aired by Al-Jazeera in late October, also said that France's security would be compromised if it does not pull its 3,750 soldiers out of Afghanistan.

France said for the first time Wednesday that it was in touch with the AQIM kidnappers.

"Of course there are all kinds of contact" with the hostage-takers, new Defence Minister Alain Juppe told Europe 1 radio, without giving more details.

"All the (French) authorities, the defence ministry, the foreign ministry, everyone is being extremely vigilant to make the necessary contact," he said.

Asked if the hostages were believed to be safe, Juppe added: "Currently there is every reason to believe they are."

The Rest @ AFP

AQIM Atempting to Provoke French Attack

AREVA Hostages.

It may be that AQIM is trying to Provoke a French Attack in the Sahel to provide a pretense for an upcoming attack on French soil al Qaeda anticipates will cause both Muslim and non-Muslim deaths in France;

This may be art of a global strategy to increase the level of commitment of the Umma by the Islamist Movement:

If succseful, more Muslims will move into the next level of commitment.

• Salifiyaa into Activist,
• Acftivist to Ikhwan,
• I khwan to Mujahadin.

The point here is that this Hostage taking is a deliberate provocation of the French administration, to provoke an overreaction. The Overreaction will be used as a justification for the attack in France.....

(Remember the Arch Duke Ferdinand assassiation?)

Caution is recommended, and watch for other incidents designed provoke an attack on Muslim popultions:

England - The Netherlands - Sweden

the activities are designed to create overreactions and then higher commmitment to Jihad by Muslim populations...

The French Attack attempt - Watch the Watchers to Find the Spie Masters

It is not surprise that an attack by Al Qaeda is being planned for France, or even that it is imminent in the next few months. Knowing that is coming can possibly prevent it from being successful, and further, can serve as an opportunity to round-up the intermediate threat.

Algeria and France have a long history together; and there were many years when a citizen of Algeria was considered a citizen of France. Many Algerian Families had members who migrated to France during that time, and they have maintained ties over the generations.

Also during this time, anti-France organizations formed in Algeria, many with an Islamic foundations. Some of those begin to form rebel groups. They have been in Algeria and the larger Sahel region for generations growing and shrinking because of Algerian government attacks. They are supported mainly by smuggling activities, and in the last 10 years or so, by kidnapping of Westerners for ransom.

It is not a surprise that al Qaeda cultivated relationships with these groups, who have clan and family relationships in France.

It is not a surprise that Al Qaeda rewarded these groups with an affiliate endorsement and prestige and recruit support (AQIM).

Al Qaeda has leveraged the relationships these Algerians hold with family and friends in France to create unrest, recruit, fund raise, and to create and train Intel teams in France. There have been attacks, but the last successful attack was 15 years ago.

It seems about correct in timing that newly trained Intel teams (since AQIM's endorsement by Al Qaeda) have reported on a number of French targets, and decisions are likely being made about where and how the attacks will be conducted. This is how they attacked Spain, the UK, and how they have tried to attack the US.

None of this is a surprise. What is a surprise is that old dormant islamist networks in France are being reactivated with fighters trained and experienced Iraq, Afghanistan, North Africa and and Pakistan, as they come home.

It is not new news that AQIM fighters are planning an attack in and on France. Trained fighters returning home (after their failures abroad) suggest the possibility that an al Qaeda type attack (assaults on protected targets in waves, with suicide bombers spearheading each wave, with a trailing attack on emergency service workers) is being planned, to be carried out when sufficient numbers of fighters get back to France.

These will likely be stopped before they can be carried out, as they have in the past, because foreign fighters are being tracked carefully. When a critical mass of fighters get back to France, it is likely this type of an attack will be undertaken. After the attack fails in the short term or the long term, (and it will fail- the longer the attack goes before it fails, the more successful al Qaeda will judge it.)

Ikhwan leaders will gauge the response of Muslims in their organization to identify people who may be open to being recruited into other organizations for a longer term Jihad in France. They will talk of any French reaction or round up of suspects as an assault on the Ummah. Watch for who says these things, and who they are choosing to say them to.

The key is to watch the Ikhwan leaders, and the people they are watching among the Muslim immigrant population, as they search for potential recruits. They will be active in and around the next attack attempted on France.

Watch the Intel teams who watch the French repose to the attack attempt, who are gathering data while the attacks occur. Watch what they write and who they communicate to after the attack attempt.

The attack attempt will come, perhaps in the next few weeks or months, but the key is to watch both types of watchers, both watchers of the attack itself, and also those who watch and measure the response of the Muslim population in the weeks after the attack. These are the leaders of the intermediate threat of al Qaeda attack.

Spie masters, by any other name, still train recruit and train people to watch and report.

-Shimron Issachar

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AFP - France is at immediate risk of a major terror attack by Islamist radicals and has further reinforced already urgent security measures since last week, officials said Monday.

Asked about reports that an attack might be imminent, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said: "The threat is real, we have stepped up our vigilance."


TALKING POINTS

France faces 'real' terrorist threat

Separately, a source close to the ministry confirmed that police are probing reports that a female suicide bomber may be preparing a strike in Paris, but added: "That's not necessarily the most worrying thing."

Instead, he explained, Paris is concerned with intelligence received from an allied foreign spy agency that Al-Qaeda's North African branch, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was planning an "imminent" attack in France.

"It's a threat which we think might target transportation," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity and without giving further details except that the warning was received at 5:00 am (0300 GMT) on Thursday last week.


NORTH AFRICA

Exclusive footage gives rare insight into life in al Qaeda insurgency

The interior ministry played down the specific risk to transport, insisting that the threat was "against totally undefined targets."

Meanwhile, according to a police source, authorities have learned that two dormant Islamist networks in France have been revived to receive and host groups of Jihadi radicals returning from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Separately, officials from Paris's Grand Mosque confirmed that their rector, Dalil Boubakeur, had been placed under police protection and provided with an escort as he moves about the city.

Boubakeur is a moderate figure who has worked with France's government on issues of Muslim integration and has been threatened by radicals in the past.

On Tuesday, hundreds of tourists were moved away from the Eiffel Tower as it was briefly evacuated following a hoax bomb threat.

France's national terror warning plan, known as "Vigipirate", was already at alert level "reinforced red" -- one step down from the highest level, scarlet, which would represent a precise and imminent threat.

The warnings were the latest in a series given over the past 10 days since the head of France's DCRI domestic intelligence agency, Bernard Squarcini, said France had never faced a greater "terrorist threat."

They come at a time when France has been the target of violent threats on Jihadi websites, including from known armed militant leaders, over its ban on the full-face Muslim veil and its overseas military operations.

Senators voted last week to pass the ban on the burqa and the niqab and it will go into effect in around six months if approved by constitutional judges.

Before the law was voted, Al-Qaeda's Egyptian number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released an audio tape urging Muslim women to resist the ban.

French troops, meanwhile, are fighting Islamic militants in both Afghanistan -- where they are part of the NATO mission -- and northwest Africa, where in July they took part in a commando raid against a AQIM base.

The July 22 strike, carried out alongside Mauritanian troops operating in northern Mali, left seven militants dead, but failed to find a French hostage, 78-year-old aid worker Michel Germaneau, who is thought to be dead.

AQIM claimed responsibility for killing Germaneau and vowed to avenge the raid. The group is now the prime suspect in last week's kidnap in Niger of seven foreign nationals, five of them French.

The group is thought to have taken its captives, including a French married couple, to Mali. France has sent an 80-strong military intelligence detachment to Bamako to hunt down the gang, officials said Monday.

France has Europe's largest Islamic population, with around five million Muslims of mainly north African descent, but since September 11, 2001 has been spared the kind of large scale attacks that hit London and Madrid.

The last major Islamist bomb attack in Paris dates back to the summer of 1995, when eight were killed and 200 wounded in attacks on Metro trains.

The Rest @ France24

AQIM Fails in Nema, Mauritainia Attack

The North African wing of Al Qaeda (AQIM) has claimed responsibility for the failed suicide bomb attack at Nema, some 1,200 km east of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania.The failed attack came on Aug. 25, when the Mauritanian army shot to death a suicide bomber attempting to force through the gates of an army barracks with a 4x4 vehicle full of explosives.

In a statement on an Arabic website, the terrorist organization said this failed attack was meant to be a revenge against the July 22 Franco-Mauritanian raid on an AQIM camp. Seven AQIM members lost their lives during the assault, which was reportedly launched to release a 78-year-old French hostage.

The statement gave the details of the operation, saying the vehicle of the suicide bomber was transporting 1.2 tons of explosives and that he managed to force himself through the gates of the barracks, causing serious damage to the property.

According to Mauritania's security sources, the attempted attack left the suicide bomber dead and more than three Mauritanian military officers injured.

The Rest @ Xinhua

France vs AQIM

AQIM in the Sahel war heats up.
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France has seized upon reports of the execution of a French aid worker by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in July to escalate its military intervention in its former colonies in the strategic Sahel region of Western Africa.

French aid worker Michel Germaneau, 78, who was kidnapped in April while working for a children’s charity in Niger, was reportedly executed by AQIM in retaliation for a joint Franco-Mauritanian raid on July 22 on an AQIM camp in northern Mali.

The raid ostensibly was an attempt to liberate him. On July 25, in a recording broadcast by the Al Jazeera TV network, AQIM said Germaneau had been killed in “revenge” for the death of its members in the raid.

Having announced the death of Germaneau on July 26, the French government declared that it would wage war in the Sahel region, an area along the south of the Sahara desert, running through Mauritania, Mali, Niger and southern Algeria.

On July 27, French Prime Minister François Fillon declared, “France is at war with Al Qaeda… Combat against terrorism, and AQIM in particular, will intensify”. He added that “roughly 400 fighters are waging a merciless struggle against the countries of the region and against our interests”.

On August 16, the government set the “Vigipirate” anti-terrorist alert system to “red” status, the second highest possible alert level.

France will increase its own military activities and its collaboration with regimes in the Sahel. Axel Poniatowski, head of a parliamentary foreign affairs commission, said, “France will provide ‘logistical support’ for military actions by Mauritania, Mali, or Niger against AQIM”.

The BBC commented, “France, as well as other European nations and the United States, have been training soldiers here for many years. This is the first time, however, they have admitted to being involved in an operation against AQIM”.

On July 26 and 27, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner visited Mauritania, Mali and Niger. Speaking in Niamey, the capital of Niger, he said, “We will be alongside our Nigerien, Malian, Mauritanian friends”. Asked about the possibility of installing bases in the region, he said, “We are not going to install bases. We have very clear defence agreements”.

In fact, reports suggest French troops already treat bases in the region as their own. The news magazine Le Point writes, “France is, with the US and UK, one of the three countries with Special Forces that can carry out completely independent operations. The units, highly trained in desert warfare, have been in the Sahel for months, train regional armed forces, know the region well, and can even if needed operate clandestinely there. They have already done it, and more than once! French units know the Sahel, and the technical means at their disposal—reconnaissance satellites, planes to intercept communications, etc.—are perfectly adapted to this theatre of operations”.

Questions on the official story

Reports from Al Jazeera and British business intelligence firm Menas question the credibility of French official statements, including on how the raid took place, its location, and even whether Germaneau was in fact executed.

There is also evidence of an aerial raid launched from Tessalit—an old French colonial base in north-eastern Mali near the Algerian border, also used by US Special Forces—in which Algeria could have been involved. French officials denied that there were aerial operations, or that Tessalit or Algerian forces were involved.

On August 8, Al Jazeera published a report by Jeremy Keenan, an expert on the region at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He charged that “France, Mauritania and Algeria have gone to extreme lengths to cover up what actually happened”.

He noted a July 22 AFP dispatch that cited “a foreign military source in Bamako as saying that the raid on a suspected al Qaeda base (in north-west Mali) was just a smoke screen”.

He continued, “based on the reports received from well-placed regional sources shortly after midday on July 22, there had been intense air traffic around Tessalit during the night and early morning, and that Algerians, supported by French special forces, had led an assault into the adjoining Tigharghar Mountains in an attempt to rescue Germaneau”.

Keenan wrote that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was advised by his defence council at a July 19 meeting, “in which the prime minister, foreign and interior ministry, the head of the armed services, representatives of the foreign, interior and military intelligence services and [Sarkozy’s chief of staff] Claude Guéant participated”. He added, “[T]he decision to intervene in the Sahel was not taken lightly and would certainly have involved an appreciation of the views of Algeria’s DRS”, its military intelligence service.

Guéant reportedly met with DRS chief General Mohamed Mediène in Algiers on June 20.
Keenan questioned whether Germaneau was executed after the July 22 raid, or if he died before. He suffered from heart disease and had been denied access to critical medicine. Keenan writes, “[T]he last evidence that he was alive was received by the French authorities on May 14. Sources in the region believe that he may have died shortly after that time”.

He pointed out, “The only testimony of his execution has come from a local Kidal dignitary, who has been involved in previous hostage negotiations and is a thoroughly discredited source. Moreover, the very vague nature of the demands that accompanied the threat to execute Germaneau on July 26, combined with the fact that no negotiators appear to have been mobilised within Mali, as has been the pattern with previous hostage cases, must also have alerted the French authorities to question whether Germaneau was still alive”.

Geo-strategic interests and France’s “war on terror”

The declaration of a new “war on terror” is an ominous, reactionary event, whose basic social content is now well known. Intelligence services and special forces will be given free rein to use massive violence against ex-colonial regions, while the population of their home country is to be terrorised by constant warnings from the political establishment of possible attacks.
The military escalation in the Sahel under the banner of a “war on terror” is aimed at pursuing France’s strategic and commercial interests. The 2008 French white paper on defence, which outlined France’s global geo-strategy, identified the Sahel as one of four critical regions for French imperialism. The region is a key supplier of oil, minerals, and uranium.

Uranium is one critical interest for French imperialism in the region. France’s nuclear industry—which supplies 78 percent of the country’s electricity generating capacity and makes €3 billion in yearly profits from energy exports alone—relies on Niger for 25 percent of the 12,400 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate that it consumes yearly.

The world’s third-largest uranium producer, Niger is expected to increase its yearly uranium output from 3,500 to 10,500 metric tonnes. French state-owned nuclear company Areva has exploited these uranium reserves for 40 years. It mines the Arlit and Akouta deposits, which produced over 3,000 metric tonnes in 2008. Areva has invested €1.2 billion in the Imouraren deposit, which is expected to produce almost 5,000 metric tons per year for over 35 years.
French hegemony in the region is threatened by the growing influence of China. Beijing has emerged as a rival buyer of uranium in Niger, from the Azelik and Teguidda deposits. It has also paid $5 billion for the right to prospect for oil in the Agadem oilfield in eastern Niger.

Africa Confidential writes, “China’s relatively new involvement vastly strengthens Niger’s power to bargain with France”.

France’s military intervention has the backing of Washington. Last November, US Coordinator for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin told the US Senate, “French ties in this region remain pivotal, and France has expressed a sincere desire to cooperate with the United States in this area of the world. The Paris meeting in September was the first senior-level meeting that mapped out a way forward for such cooperation.

Our strategic counterterrorism priorities in this region are very similar, focusing as they do on building law enforcement, military capacity, and development”.

On July 30, the Wall Street Journal commented that “Paris’s plan to increase its involvement [in the Sahel], gives reason to hope that France is ready to retake the lead in this increasingly hot front”. It added that “predictably, not of all of France’s former colonies are welcoming the erstwhile colonial master’s return to assertiveness”.

In the face of growing competition for markets and natural resources, France’s raids in the Sahel set precedent for further military escalations. French media recently indicated that the ruling class is considering fighting major wars against Turkey, Egypt, or even China. (See: “Media demands France prepare for world war”)

A French “war on terror” in Africa will be used to legitimate France’s deeply unpopular participation in the US-led “war on terror” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to which France is deploying the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. A recent poll found that 70 percent of the French population opposes the war in Afghanistan.

In an August 26 speech, however, Sarkozy said France would “remain engaged in Afghanistan, with its allies, as long as is necessary”.

The Rest @ World Socialist Website

Mokhtar Belmokhtar

The claimed assassination of Michel Germaneau indicates AQIM is willing to trade Islamist objectives for fund raising.

This is a small surprise from Mokhtar Belmokhtar, AQIM's head. He has always been a business person first, a Smuggler. He married wives from three desert tribes to keep his routes through the Sahel. Now, he is about to give up funding for military objectives alone.

This shows that the multi country task force operating in his backyard are being effective.

Hostage taking for ransom as a fund raising activity is one of the sources for funding AQIM, along with trafficking in people, drugs, cash, and even more mundane contraband like cigarettes. Hostage taking for funds, which stepped up in the last year, is about to dry up,
Mokhtar Belmokhtar. No one will pay anymore if they don't get their people back.

-Shimron Issachar

****************

Prime minister: France is at war against al-Qaida
(AP) – 2 hours ago

PARIS — France is "at war" with al-Qaida and will step up efforts to fight its North African offshoot after it executed a French hostage in the Sahara, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.

Fillon acknowledged that the group may have killed 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau before — not after — a failed last-ditch raid to try to free him.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb said in an audio message broadcast Sunday that it had killed Germaneau in retaliation for a raid last week by Mauritanian and French forces that killed at least six al-Qaida militants.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed the killing Monday, vowing that the perpetrators "will not go unpunished."

His prime minister said Tuesday that France will reinforce efforts to work with governments in northwest Africa fighting al-Qaida in the sparsely populated swath of desert that includes the borders dividing Mauritania, Mali, Algeria and Niger.

"We are at war against al-Qaida," Fillon said on Europe-1 radio. He said France "thwarts several attacks every year," without elaborating.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday from Mauritania that the Sahel region in question "will not be left to terrorist bands, arms and drug traffickers."

"The combat risks being long but we will continue it," Kouchner said after meeting with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. Sarkozy sent the minister to the region this week to discuss, among other things, security for French citizens.

Fillon said it was unclear when Germaneau was killed. He said French authorities considered the possibility that the hostage "had already been dead" at the time of a July 12 ultimatum issued by the terrorist group. Fillon said that was only an "assumption" based on "the abnormal, strange character of this ultimatum and of (the group's) refusal to engage in discussion with French authorities."

French forces agreed to take part in what he called a "last chance" operation in the hope they could still save Germaneau, the prime minister said.

Asked whether France would seek to find Germaneau's remains, Fillon said only that when British hostage Edwin Dyer was beheaded in the region last year, "his remains were never found."

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or North Africa, grew out of an Islamist insurgency movement in Algeria, formally merging with al-Qaida in 2006 and spreading through the Sahel region.

Amid increasing concerns about terrorism and trafficking in northwest Africa, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger opened a joint military headquarters deep in the desert in April to jointly respond to threats from traffickers and the al-Qaida offshoot.

Associated Press writer Ahmed Mohammed contributed to this report from Nouakchott, Mauritania.

The Rest @ The AP

Israeli-Russian billionaire Arkady Gaydamak has been sentenced in Paris to 6 years in jail for arms trafficking, corruption and tax evasion. His lawyer says he is a victim of political and legal machinations.

The businessman’s partner, French magnate Pierre Falcone, has also been convicted to six years behind bars and was immediately arrested. Arkady Gaydamak was sentenced in absentia, and it is unclear whether he will ever serve the prison term, as he reportedly is currently living in Russia.

The judge said that Gaydamak’s guilt is burdened with his attitude toward justice – the Israeli businessman of Soviet origin has ignored all requests to appear in court.

Gaydamak’s lawyer told RIA Novosti news agency it’s very much likely that they are going to appeal the court’s decision.

Falcone’s attorney is confident the case was politically motivated.

“The court hasn’t looked for any other guilty persons, even though the investigation revealed that state services had been well informed,” he is quoted as saying. “The court has interpreted the case in a wrong way. Obviously, we are going to immediately appeal the decision and demand that Pierre Falcone be released.”

The two businessmen are accused of buying Soviet-made tanks, helicopters and artillery pieces and then selling them in the 1990s to Angola during a civil war.

All the weapons – worth about $ 790 million – came from Russia through a French-based firm and its subsidiary in Eastern Europe, a company controlled by Gaydamak and Falcone.

The businessmen did not deny that they organized arms supplies to Angola.

• What they refused to admit is the accusation that they sold 170,000 antipersonnel mines.
• The two also claim they didn’t have to get the French approval for weapons supplies, since they were transported to Angola through the territory of former socialist states.
• The lawyers cited a letter sent last summer to Falcone by French Defense Minister Herve Morin where the official said the trade didn’t require permission.
• The judge nevertheless said the letter would not influence the outcome of the case.

The Rest @ Russia Today

French Security Advisors to Be Tried by Shabaab Sharia

Two French security advisers seized in Somalia will be tried under Sharia law, an official from their captors, the Islamic al-Shabab militia, says.

The unnamed spokesman said they would be tried for spying and "conspiracy against Islam".
The two, who were training government troops, were kidnapped by gunmen in a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday and later handed over to al-Shabab insurgents.

Al-Shabab and its allies control much of southern Somalia.
The al-Shabab official said no date had been set for the trial of the two men.

They were on an official mission to train the forces of the interim government, which has recently appealed for foreign help to tackle Islamist insurgents.

Moderate Islamist President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was sworn in in January after UN-brokered peace talks.

He promised to introduce Sharia law but the hardliners accuse him of being a western stooge.
Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991.

Meeting al-Shabab Somali justice, Islamist-style

The Rest @ the BBC via Weasel Zippers