AQIM Plan to Attack US Flagged Ships Foiled in Algeria

American officials are acknowledging a terror plot in Algeria that aimed to attack US or European ships in the Mediterranean. The plot, which was similar to that of the bombings in Yemen of the USS Cole in 2000 and the Limburg oil tanker in 2002, included ramming explosives-filled boats into Western-flagged ships, but was interrupted by Algerian authorities in the early planning stages.

ABC reported that US officials had been aware of the plot before the Algerian daily newspaper, Echorouk, broke the story, but hinted that Algerian authorities had foiled the plot without the help of the US government.

Three terror cell members were arrested after arousing suspicions among Algerian authorities when they visited jihadist websites at a local Internet cafe. Although no specific US ship was identified as a target, according to US authorities, Echorouk reported that the plotters had already purchased a boat to carry out the attack.

When asked if the US had played any role in uncovering the plot, a US counterterrorism official gave ABC a vague response, saying, "We know that al Qaeda and their sympathizers continue to plot against the US and our allies [and] as such, we are in touch with a number of foreign governments on issues pertaining to counterterrorism."

Authorities believe the plot was directed by the Algerian-based terror franchise known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group, which had earlier called itself the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), was officially welcomed into the al Qaeda fold by then second-in-command Ayman al Zawahiri in a Sept. 11, 2006 video.

In recent years, AQIM has tried to make headlines to keep pace with other affiliates such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the ever-growing al Qaeda-aligned Somali insurgency, Shabaab. Although most of AQIM's attacks are aimed at Algerian government and military targets, the group has recently begun to rely on kidnapping European tourists as a means to further fund its desire to conduct attacks globally

By WES BRUERJanuary 26, 2012 6:35 PM

The Rest @ The Longwar Journal

AQIM Warns they will Attack Commercial Aircraft Attacks

French journalists embedded in recent counter terror operations in the Sahael region of  Africa claim to have been briefed that AQIM has warned of upcoming surface-to-air missile attacks against commercial aircraft. Though it is buried deep in the following story, the timing of such a warning is important. Salafist teachings tell Mujahdin to warn the oppressors so that they may repent. Al Qaeda organizations and their affiliates have consistently given repentance warnings before they introduced a new methods of warfare. This may indicated that AQIM has resolved their SA-7 training and battery issues.

- Shimron Issachar

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NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Regional cooperation is needed in the fight against al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb but many potential allies are content to point fingers, a specialist said.

Heavy weaponry lost during the Libyan war is in the hands of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, French newspaper France 24 reports. Its journalists were embedded recently with a counter-terrorism unit in the deserts of Mauritania.

The report said Mauritanian officials say AQIM now has surface-to-air missiles in its possession that can down a commercial airliner.

Mauritania declared parts of its desert a demilitarized zone in 2008 to combat terrorist groups like AQIM, the North African branch of al-Qaida.

Authorities there said, however, that close cooperation between countries in the region is the only effective strategy against AQIM.

Mohamed Mahmoud Adoulmaaly, a newspaper editor and AQIM specialist, told France 24, however, that regionally cooperation was unlikely.

"Algeria spends it's time warning against the French presence and not giving any support, same goes for Niger," he said. "The interests of these countries are all totally divergent."

AQIM took responsibility for a September attack on the Cherchell Military Academy in Algeria that left 16 students and two civilians dead. Washington had earlier acknowledged that AQIM had issued threats against chartered planes in Algeria.

U.S. counter-terrorism officials told reporters during a recent background briefing that "these regional nodes are the way of the future" for al-Qaida.

The Rest @ UPI

5 Algerians In Basque, in Spain Arrested for Supporting AQIM

In light of recent arrests of AQIM connected Algerians in  the Basque area of Spain, I am Wondering About connections between AQIM , ETA and the Basque Separatist movement. Any Comments?


-Shimron Issachar

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By CIARAN GILES, Associated Press – 9 hours ago
MADRID (AP) — Spanish police arrested five Algerians on Tuesday suspected of helping finance an al-Qaida-linked terror group in North Africa.

The arrests took place in four towns in the northern Basque and Navarra regions, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The five are suspected of giving logistical and financial support to members of the radical Islamist group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, which operates in Algeria.

AQIM grew out of the armed groups fighting the Algerian government in the 1990s after elections were canceled by the military in 1991 to stave off a victory for an Islamist political party. The group declared allegiance to al-Qaida in 2006 and changed its name, starting a renewed campaign of bombings and kidnappings across the Sahara.

The group currently holds four French hostages and French officials have called it the biggest terror threat to France and its interests.

The Spanish statement said the five arrested also maintained contacts with other radical Islamists in France, Italy and Switzerland and seized a large amount of documents and computer material.
They were named as Mohamed Talbi, Hakim Anniche, Mounir Aoudache, Abdelghaffour Bensaoula and Ahmed Benchohra, between 36 and 49 years old.
Dozens of suspected radical Islamic militants have been arrested in Spain since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York and Washington, and again after the 2004 commuter train bombings in Madrid.

The Rest @ AP

AQIM Car Bomb in Chercell, Near Algiers

A suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives outside a military academy west of the Algerian capital on Friday (August 27th, 2011), killing at least 18 people.

At least 20 were wounded at the academy in Cherchell, which lies west of Algiers. The death toll was expected to rise, according to the Sidi Ghilas hospital where the victims were taken.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy, gave conflicting tolls, and it was not clear whether those killed were troops or civilians.Friday was a sacred day in the Muslim calendar that falls toward the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and it is often accompanied by attacks. Although no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, similar assaults have been blamed on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Islamist extremists have battled Algerian security forces since 1992 when the army cancelled a national election that a now-banned Muslim fundamentalist party was poised to win.

Security forces gained the upper hand over the years, but sporadic attacks continue and increased dramatically in July. An estimated 200,000 people civilians, insurgents and security forces have been killed since the violence began.

Th Rest @ The Guardian (UK)

AQIM's Abdelkahar Belhadj Killed in ROute to Car Bombing in ALgeria

ALGIERS: Algerian security forces killed a top member of an Al-Qaeda regional offshoot and two accomplices who were trying to reach Algiers aboard a car laden with explosives, a government official said Thursday.

The official said Abdelkahar Belhadj, son of former Islamic leader Ali Belhadj, was killed Monday as he was heading for the capital Algiers with a small group of Islamic extremists and that they were plotting a bomb attack.

Belhadj, born in 1988, joined Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2006 and took the battle name of “Mouawia,” in tribute to one of the companions of the Prophet Mohammad.

Belhadj’s father had been deputy leader of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), whose armed wing tried to overthrow the government in a bloody civil war from 1992 to the early 2000s.

The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Belhadj was “riding a grey Hyundai Atos” with two other people, one of whom was wearing a belt of explosives.

The Islamists clashed with security forces who tried to force them to stop and shot at their car, which exploded, a source in the security forces told AFP. “Three soldiers were wounded.”

“It’s confirmed. It is the son of Ali Belhadj who has been killed. There has been DNA identification of the body” of Abdelkahar Belhadj, the government source said.

But Abdelkahar’s uncle Abdelhamid Belhadj, saying he was a spokesman for Ali Belhadj, told AFP: “We are unaware of reports that he is dead.”

“The security forces already told us that they would let us know in the event of his death,” he added.

“We have had no phone calls from the security forces.”

The daily Ennahar, quoting reliable sources, Wednesday reported the death of the man, during a bloody incident about 60 kilometers east of the capital.

Ahead of the holy month of Ramadan next month, security forces have been stepping up security around the country. Ennahar’s security expert Mohammad Mokaddem said “several attacks have been foiled and at least 15 terrorists plotting attacks have been arrested recently.”

A spectacular suicide bombing raid on July 16 which targeted a police station in Bordj Menaiel which was claimed by AQIM, claimed two lives and left 14 people injured.



Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jul-29/Top-AQIM-member-killed-in-Algeria-government-official.ashx#ixzz1U9g5eSAM
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

AQIM Near Bouamza missed their food July 26, 2011

ALGIERS — A suicide bomber blew himself up to avoid arrest in the eastern Algerian town of Bouhamza, causing no other casualties, newspapers reported Wednesday.

According to El Watan's online edition, the suspect set off an explosives belt he was wearing when local security encircled him as he left a shop after buying large quantities of food on Tuesday.

Security was subsequently beefed up around the town, located around 300 kilometres (180 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the daily said on its website.

• On Monday, three suspects, including two would-be suicide bombers, were killed by Algerian security forces around 60 kilometres (36 miles) east of Algiers following a tip-off.

The country's east has been plagued by a surge in attacks in recent weeks, including a suicide attack against a police station that left two dead and 14 wounded.

It was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a Saharan offshoot of the global extremist network which is active in an area nearly the size of Australia and also affecting Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

According to the Ennahar daily's website, one of the suspects killed on Monday was the son of Ali Belhadj, the influential former number two of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).

The newspaper said DNA testing revealed him as Abdelkahar Belhadj, born in 1988 and a member of AQIM since 2009 under the nom de guerre Mouawia.

The vehicle they were travelling in was packed with explosives they intended to use for a suicide bombing in central Algiers during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

When his son disappeared in 2006, Ali Belhadj had accused the security services of abducting him, an allegation the government had firmly denied.

His death was announced in the local press several times since but never confirmed and he was sentenced to death in absentia by an Algerian court in 2009 for a string of deadly attacks.
Ali Belhadj could not be reached to confirm reports of his son's death.

Ali Belhadj co-founded FIS with Abassi Madani and was jailed when the military called off a 1991 election after his party won the first round.

He was jailed again in 2005 and released in 2006 as part of a reconciliation drive by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The rest @ AFP

Sahel Countries Prepare for Presumed AQIM Offensive

Algerian Special Forces started joint military maneuvers with three African Sahel countries to anticipate threats of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), after chaos provoked by the crumbling of the security in Libya, which put the stability of the region at stake, local media reported on Monday.

Local Echorouk newspaper on Monday quoted a security source as saying that since last Thursday, special forces from Algeria, Mali and Niger have been conducting training in a closed military zone on borders with Niger and Mali in the extreme south of Tamnaresset province, some 2,000 km south to Algiers.

The source revealed that such training are ahead of a probable joint military operation in the Sahara by the three countries, according to the recommendation of the meeting of African Sahel chiefs of staff, which urged to boost joint maneuvers.

The newspaper speculated that a large-scale joint operation is likely to be launched this summer against AQIM in the Sahara and the Sahel region, noting that the Algerian Army has set up 30 frontline checkpoints along border with Mali.

Algeria, Mali and Niger met in Bamako, the capital city of Mali, a couple of days ago to draw up a joint ground military operation to respond to the crisis in Libya and the increasingly terrorist threats in the Sahel region.

the Rest @ The Peoples News: China

Time for Resupply for Al Qaeda in North Africa

The "Libya civil war has provided an opportunity to transfer weapons into the Sahel and AQIM."

- Mohammed Benhammou

-Shimron Issacahr

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Foreign policy experts at two forums this week examined the seismic changes of the 'Arab Spring' and focused on the importance of U.S. and European engagement with progressive leaders in the Middle East and North Africa for determining whether the current unrest will lead to reform, repression, or violent revolution.

Well-armed mercenaries recruited by Col. Qadhafi from Mali, the Polisario Front in Algeria, and elsewhere, and resurgent terrorists from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), are stocking up on arms from Libya and are eager to exploit unrest in the region after Osama bin Laden's death.

At an Atlantic Council symposium, "Preventing the 'Arab Spring' from Becoming the 'Season of Discontent,'" policy experts discussed the uncertain forecast and how to promote positive change in this pivotal part of the world.

Analyst Geoffrey Porter said "every country in the Middle East and North Africa is different" and must be understood on its own terms. Dr. Anouar Boukhars of McDaniels College pointed to Morocco where "reform efforts have strengthened its legitimacy," citing King Mohammed VI's March 9 speech on constitutional reforms. Dr. J. Peter Pham, moderator of the panel, saidMorocco's reforms were "triggered by an inside reality and not imposed from the outside," and successful reform in other countries must be "internally driven."

Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies emphasized the importance of understanding that the 'Arab Spring' unrest is being driven by demand for economic as well as political change. Long-term solutions will require strategic choices in an uncertain climate.

Ambassador Edward Gabriel said the U.S. and Europe can play a key role in promoting positive change. He proposed a 3-part "long-term strategy with countries that have taken reform seriously," such as Morocco and Jordan, to build partnerships for growth and "strategic dialogue" to better understand change shaping the region.

Prof. Yonah Alexander of the International Center for Terrorism Studies warned that al-Qaeda and state-sponsored terrorism are "alive and well" in the Maghreb and Sahel, where terrorist incidents have risen 500% since 9/11 and are a global as well as regional threat. He also noted the concerns expressed by NATO officials about mercenaries in Libya.

At the Association for the Study of the Middle East & Africa (ASMEA) forum, "Terrorism in North Africa After bin Laden," investigative reporter Richard Miniter warned "AQIM is taking advantage of the 'Arab Spring' to expand and grow." ProfessorRichard Rene Laremont of SUNY said AQIM's "narrative was weakened because change came through mass civil demonstrations, not terrorism," but that it would be reinvigorated if reforms aren't realized.

Spanish journalist Jose Maria Gil Garre, noted that AQIM has succeeded in part because it can "depend on support of military elements of the Polisario," a separatist group based in Algeria, as local guides to "carry out its arms trafficking, kidnapping, and drug-trafficking in the Sahel."

Mohammed Benhammou, of the Moroccan Center for Strategic Studies, said that "600 members of the Polisario" answered the call for mercenaries in the Libyan conflict, because decades ago "Qadhafi was the father of the Polisario"—"now they are returning the favor." Benhammou warned the "Libya civil war has provided an opportunity to transfer weapons into the Sahel and AQIM."

He added that while "Morocco has been a model for the region" with its reforms, "Algeria has taken a wait and see attitude." Benhammou cited the need for "economic integration" in the region, which currently has one of the lowest cross-border trade rates in the world. Laremont added that Algeria needs to "realize it is in its interest to stop bickering with Morocco and cooperate" to address economic and security challenges facing the region.

The Rest @ The American Moroccan Center for Policy

Italian Tourist Kidnapped in Algerian

Algiers – The Algerian APS news agency said on Friday that an Italian tourist had been abducted by suspected Islamic militants in the North African country’s remote southern desert.

The woman had been heading towards the southern town of Alidena when militants armed with automatic weapons began following her in all-terrain vehicles.

The group captured the tourist but released her guide and cook.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is active in the area and has often abducted foreign tourists.

The Rest @ Indepth Africa.com

AQIM's 'Abd Al-Wadud Praises Tunisia Regime Change

On January 13, 2011, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) leader Abu Mus'ab 'Abd Al-Wadud released two audio clips, produced by AQIM's media wing Al-Andalus and disseminated on various jihadi forums, in which he called on the Tunisians and Algerians, respectively, to escalate riots against their governments. The clips were released in light of fierce ongoing riots in Tunisia and recent riots in Algeria.

'Abd Al-Wadud called on the Tunisians to send their youth to join the ranks of his organization, where they could arm themselves and undergo military training. He added that those unable to join should carry out attacks on Western targets independently.

Following are the main points of the audio clips:

• 'Abd Al-Wadud praised the Tunisians for taking to the streets
• standing up to their "tyrannical" government after suffering decades of oppression at its hands
• offered the jihadists' help in supporting the Tunisians' "uprising."

The Rest @ MEMRI

Algerian Offensive Against AQIM Underway

Published : Monday, January 03 2011 15:02

ALGIERS, Algeria, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- The Algerian army is conducting its biggest offensive in years against al-Qaida forces in the north across the Kabylie mountains and reportedly disrupted a major plot to use cellphone-detonated explosives in a bombing campaign.

There were reports that some top leaders of the group, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, have been killed but these haven't been confirmed.

The military has maintained a security blackout on the operation since it was launched Dec. 9 with some 5,000 troops, including Special Forces and helicopter gunships.

However, Algerian newspapers have given the land and air campaign a lot of coverage in recent days."It's not a limited campaign," a senior official was quoted as saying. "It will continue for some time, possibly until late January."

Algiers newspapers report that 2,000 more troops are scheduled to reinforce the operation in which a large group of militants are besieged by the military in AQIM's northern stronghold.The offensive was triggered by the capture of two militants in early December.

They told interrogators that a major gathering of AQIM chieftains was planned at Sidi Ali Bounab, 70 miles east of Algiers, presided over by AQIM's overall commander, Abdelmalek Droukdel.The military had announced no results from the extensive operations but newspapers have reported that more than 20 militants have been killed.Droukdel, aka Abu Mousaab Abdelwadoud, has maintained the group's northern headquarters there for some time.There have been unconfirmed reports that Droukdel, 40, was among the militants killed in the offensive. He has been reported slain several times before but and always turned alive although he appears to have been badly wounded in 2009.

The Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank that monitors global terrorism, quoted Algerian security sources as saying the meeting was intended to organize a force to be sent to the Sahara Desert to block a planned coup by AQIM's southern command.

The aim was to depose Droukdel and set up an independent emirate in the Sahara and the adjacent semi-arid Sahel region, Jamestown reported.Droukdel took over the militant group known as the Islamic Group for Preaching and Combat in 2004 and led it into an alliance with al-Qaida in 2006.

He has been unchallenged until recently. AQIM's southern "emir," or leader, Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, Droukdel's former lieutenant, has emerged as a rival and has garnered tens of millions of dollars in ransom for European -- and Arab -- hostages his fighters have seized.Western counter-terrorism specialists have viewed Abu Zeid as a possible successor to Droukdel, who is ideologically close to the core al-Qaida leadership holed up in northern Pakistan.

His main base is believed to be in the hill country along the Algeria-Mali border deep in Sahel, where U.S. intelligence considers him a serious threat in the mineral-rich region of northwest Africa.AQIM is the only al-Qaida affiliate operating in Africa, with the possible exception of al-Sahaab in Somalia.

It has been expanding its operations across the region. It's viewed in some quarters as a threat to Europe.Algeria is leading the fight against the Algerian-led jihadists. France declared war on AQIM in July after Abu Zeid beheaded a 78-year-old French hostage, Michael Germaneau.That happened after seven of Abu Zeid's men were killed during an abortive attempt by French Special Forces and Mauritanian troops to rescue the ailing Germaneau.

Overall, Abu Zeid has been blamed for the abduction of more than 20 Europeans since 2008.They include five French citizens kidnapped at the French uranium mining operation at Arlit in Niger. They remain in captivity, reportedly in neighboring Mali.The Americans are sufficiently concerned about the threat Abu Zeid poses that they supplied electronic intelligence on him to their French counterparts.

The Algerian offensive initially targeted suspected hideouts in forests and scrubland near Sidi Ali Bounab, southwest of the town of Tizi-Ouzou, 65 miles east of Algiers.On Dec. 10, the military jammed three mobile phone networks for six days, the first time such a shutdown had been ordered in the fight against the Islamists.The objective apparently was to ensure that the militants couldn't communicate or electronically detonate the bombs they were reported to be planning for Tizi Ouzou and the nearby towns of Boumerdes and Bouira.

The Rest @ PoliTimes

Algeria Releases AQIM's Samir Saioud

Algeria Frees Former Al-Qaeda Official

Algerian authorities have freed a former Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) official, Samir Saioud, following his call to his comrades in the organization to lay down their arms.
According to assessments, the Algerian authorities want to show good will towards AQIM members who give conciliatory messages.

Source: Al-Hayat, London, September 13, 2010

The Rest @ MEMRI

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

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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

The Venezuela - West Africa Trafficking Network

TIMBUKTU, Mali - In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called "the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11."

The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa's most unstable countries.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat.

The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops, executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of al-Qaida are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to Europe, the officials say.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been held responsible for car and suicide bombings in Algeria and Mauritania.

Gunmen and bandits with links to AQIM have also stepped up kidnappings of Europeans for ransom, who are then passed on to AQIM factions seeking ransom payments.
The aircraft hopscotch across South American countries, picking up tons of cocaine and jet fuel, officials say.
They then soar across the Atlantic to West Africa and the Sahel, where the drugs are funneled across the Sahara Desert and into Europe.

Transporting 'other goods'?An examination of documents and interviews with officials in the United States and three West African nations suggest that at least 10 aircraft have been discovered using this air route since 2006.

Officials warn that many of these aircraft were detected purely by chance. They caution that the real number involved in the networks is likely considerably higher.

Alexandre Schmidt, regional representative for West and Central Africa for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, cautioned in Dakar this week that the aviation network has expanded in the past 12 months and now likely includes several Boeing 727 aircraft.

"When you have this high capacity for transporting drugs into West Africa, this means that you have the capacity to transport as well other goods, so it is definitely a threat to security anywhere in the world," said Schmidt.

The "other goods" officials are most worried about are weapons that militant organizations can smuggle on the jet aircraft.A Boeing 727 can handle up to 10 tons of cargo.

The U.S. official who wrote the report for the Department of Homeland Security said the al-Qaida connection was unclear at the time.The official is a counter-narcotics aviation expert who asked to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak on the record. He said he was dismayed by the lack of attention to the matter since he wrote the report.

"You've got an established terrorist connection on this side of the Atlantic. Now on the Africa side you have the al-Qaida connection and it's extremely disturbing and a little bit mystifying that it's not one of the top priorities of the government," he said.

Since the September 11 attacks, the security system for passenger air traffic has been ratcheted up in the United States and throughout much of the rest of the world, with the latest measures imposed just weeks ago after a failed bomb attempt on a Detroit-bound plane on December 25.

"The bad guys have responded with their own aviation network that is out there everyday flying loads and moving contraband," said the official, "and the government seems to be oblivious to it."
The upshot, he said, is that militant organizations -- including groups like the FARC and al-Qaida -- have the "power to move people and material and contraband anywhere around the world with a couple of fuel stops."

The lucrative drug trade is already having a deleterious impact on West African nations. Local authorities told Reuters they are increasingly outgunned and unable to stop the smugglers.
And significantly, many experts say, the drug trafficking is bringing in huge revenues to groups that say they are part of al-Qaida.

It's swelling not just their coffers but also their ranks, they say, as drug money is becoming an effective recruiting tool in some of the world's most desperately poor regions. U.S. President Barack Obama has chided his intelligence officials for not pooling information "to connect those dots" to prevent threats from being realized.

But these dots, scattered across two continents like flaring traces on a radar screen, remain largely unconnected and the fleets themselves are still flying.

The deadly cocaine trade always follows the money, and its cash-flush traffickers seek out the routes that are the mostly lightly policed.

Beset by corruption and poverty, weak countries across West Africa have become staging platforms for transporting between 30 tons and 100 tons of cocaine each year that ends up in Europe, according to U.N. estimates.

Drug trafficking, though on a much smaller scale, has existed here and elsewhere on the continent since at least the late 1990s, according to local authorities and U.S. enforcement officials.

Earlier this decade, sea interdictions were stepped up. So smugglers developed an air fleet that is able to transport tons of cocaine from the Andes to African nations that include Mauritania, Mali, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau.

What these countries have in common are numerous disused landing strips and makeshift runways -- most without radar or police presence. Guinea Bissau has no aviation radar at all. As fleets grew, so, too, did the drug trade.

The DEA says all aircraft seized in West Africa had departed Venezuela.

That nation's location on the Caribbean and Atlantic seaboard of South America makes it an ideal takeoff place for drug flights bound for Africa, they say.

In-flight refueling

A number of aircraft have been retrofitted with additional fuel tanks to allow in-flight refueling -- a technique innovated by Mexico's drug smugglers. (Cartel pilots there have been known to stretch an aircraft's flight range by putting a water mattress filled with aviation fuel in the cabin, then stacking cargoes of marijuana bundles on top to act as an improvised fuel pump.)

Ploys used by the cartel aviators to mask the flights include fraudulent pilot certificates, false registration documents and altered tail numbers to steer clear of law enforcement lookout lists,
investigators say.

Some aircraft have also been found without air-worthiness certificates or log books.
When smugglers are forced to abandon them, they torch them to destroy forensic and other evidence like serial numbers.

The evidence suggests that some Africa-bound cocaine jets also file a regional flight plan to avoid arousing suspicion from investigators.

They then subsequently change them at the last minute, confident that their switch will go undetected.

One Gulfstream II jet, waiting with its engines running to take on 2.3 tons of cocaine at Margarita Island in Venezuela, requested a last-minute flight plan change to war-ravaged Sierra Leone in West Africa.

It was nabbed moments later by Venezuelan troops, the report seen by Reuters showed. Once airborne, the planes soar to altitudes used by commercial jets.

They have little fear of interdiction as there is no long-range radar coverage over the Atlantic. Current detection efforts by U.S. authorities, using fixed radar and P3 aircraft, are limited to traditional Caribbean and north Atlantic air and marine transit corridors.

The aircraft land at airports, disused runways or improvised air strips in Africa. One bearing a false Red Cross emblem touched down without authorization onto an unlit strip at Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone in 2008, according to a U.N. report.

Bribes

Late last year a Boeing 727 landed on an improvised runway using the hard-packed sand of a Tuareg camel caravan route in Mali, where local officials said smugglers offloaded between 2 and 10 tons of cocaine before dousing the jet with fuel and burning it after it failed to take off again.

For years, traffickers in Mexico have bribed officials to allow them to land and offload cocaine flights at commercial airports. That's now happening in Africa as well.

In July 2008, troops in coup-prone Guinea Bissau secured Bissau international airport to allow an unscheduled cocaine flight to land, according to Edmundo Mendes, a director with the Judicial Police.

When we got there, the soldiers were protecting the aircraft," said Mendes, who tried to nab the Gulfstream II jet packed with an estimated $50 million in cocaine but was blocked by the military."The soldiers verbally threatened us," he said. The cocaine was never recovered.

Just last week, Reuters photographed two aircraft at Osvaldo Vieira International Airport in Guinea Bissau -- one had been dispatched by traffickers from Senegal to try to repair the other, a Gulfstream II jet, after it developed mechanical problems. Police seized the second aircraft.

One of the clearest indications of how much this aviation network has advanced was the discovery, on November 2, of the burned out fuselage of an aging Boeing 727.

Local authorities found it resting on its side in rolling sands in Mali. In several ways, the use of such an aircraft marks a significant advance for smugglers.

Boeing jetliners, like the one discovered in Mali, can fly a cargo of several tons into remote areas.
They also require a three-man crew -- a pilot, co pilot and flight engineer, primarily to manage the complex fuel system dating from an era before automation.

Hundreds of miles to the west, in the sultry, former Portuguese colony of Guinea Bissau, national Interpol director Calvario Ahukharie said several abandoned airfields, including strips used at one time by the Portuguese military, had recently been restored by "drug mafias" for illicit flights.

"In the past, the planes coming from Latin America usually landed at Bissau airport," Ahukharie said as a generator churned the feeble air-conditioning in his office during one of the city's frequent blackouts.

"But now they land at airports in southern and eastern Bissau where the judicial police have no presence."

Ahukharie said drug flights are landing at Cacine, in eastern Bissau, and Bubaque in the Bijagos Archipelago, a chain of more than 80 islands off the Atlantic coast.

Devastating impact on Guinea Bissau

Interpol said it hears about the flights from locals, although they have been unable to seize aircraft, citing a lack of resources. The drug trade, by both air and sea, has already had a devastating impact on Guinea Bissau.

A dispute over trafficking has been linked to the assassination of the military chief of staff, General Batista Tagme Na Wai in 2009. Hours later, the country's president, Joao Bernardo Vieira, was hacked to death by machete in his home.

Asked how serious the issue of air trafficking remained for Guinea Bissau, Ahukharie was unambiguous: "The problem is grave." The situation is potentially worse in the Sahel-Sahara, where cocaine is arriving by the ton.

There it is fed into well-established overland trafficking routes across the Sahara where government influence is limited and where factions of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb have become increasingly active.

The group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, is raising millions of dollars from the kidnap of Europeans.

Analysts say militants strike deals of convenience with Tuareg rebels and smugglers of arms, cigarettes and drugs.

According to a growing pattern of evidence, the group may now be deriving hefty revenues from facilitating the smuggling of FARC-made cocaine to the shores of Europe.

Unholy allianceIn December, Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, told a special session of the UN Security Council that drugs were being traded by "terrorists and anti-government forces" to fund their operations from the Andes, to Asia and the African Sahel.

"In the past, trade across the Sahara was by caravans," he said. "Today it is larger in size, faster at delivery and more high-tech, as evidenced by the debris of a Boeing 727 found on November 2nd in the Gao region of Mali -- an area affected by insurgency and terrorism."

Just days later, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials arrested three West African men following a sting operation in Ghana. The men, all from Mali, were extradited to New York on December 16 on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.

Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure, and Idriss Abelrahman are accused of plotting to transport cocaine across Africa with the intent to support al-Qaida, its local affiliate AQIM and the FARC.

The charges provided evidence of what the DEA's top official in Colombia described to a Reuters reporter as "an unholy alliance between South American narco-terrorists and Islamic extremists."

Some experts are skeptical, however, that the men are any more than criminals. They questioned whether the drug dealers oversold their al-Qaida connections to get their hands on the cocaine.

In its criminal complaint, the DEA said Toure had led an armed group affiliated to al-Qaida that could move the cocaine from Ghana through North Africa to Spain for a fee of $2,000 per kilo for transportation and protection. Toure discussed two different overland routes with an undercover informant.

• One was through Algeria and Morocco;
• the other via Algeria to Libya.

He told the informer that the group had worked with al-Qaida to transport between one and two tons of hashish to Tunisia, as well as smuggle Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi migrants into Spain. In any event, AQIM has been gaining in notoriety.

Security analysts warn that cash stemming from the trans-Saharan coke trade could transform the organization -- a small, agile group whose southern-Sahel wing is estimated to number between 100 and 200 men -- into a more potent threat in the region that stretches from Mauritania to Niger.

It is an area with huge foreign investments in oil, mining and a possible trans-Sahara gas pipeline.

"These groups are going to have a lot more money than they've had before, and I think you are going to see them with much more sophisticated weapons," said Douglas Farah, a senior fellow at the International Assessment Strategy Center, a Washington based security think-tank.

The Timbuktu region covers more than a third of northern Mali, where the parched, scrubby Sahel shades into the endless, rolling dunes of the Sahara Desert. It is an area several times the size of Switzerland, much of it beyond state control. Moulaye Haidara, the customs official, said the sharp influx of cocaine by air has transformed the area into an "industrial depot" for cocaine.

Sitting in a cool, dark, mud-brick office building in the city where nomadic Tuareg mingle with Arabs and African Songhay, Fulani and Mande peoples, Haidara expresses alarm at the challenge local law enforcement faces. Using profits from the trade, the smugglers have already bought "automatic weapons, and they are very determined," Haidara said. He added that they "call themselves al-Qaida," though he believes the group had nothing to do with religion, but used it as "an ideological base." Local authorities say four-wheel-drive Toyota SUVs outfitted with GPS navigation equipment and satellite telephones are standard issue for smugglers.

Residents say traffickers deflate the tires to gain better traction on the loose Saharan sands, and can travel at speeds of up to 70 miles-per-hour in convoys along routes to North Africa.

Timbuktu governor, Colonel Mamadou Mangara, said he believes traffickers have air-conditioned tents that enable them to operate in areas of the Sahara where summer temperatures are so fierce that they "scorch your shoes."

He added that the army lacked such equipment. A growing number of people in the impoverished region, where transport by donkey cart and camel are still common, are being drawn to the trade.

They can earn 4 to 5 million CFA Francs (roughly $9-11,000) on just one coke run.
"Smuggling can be attractive to people here who can make only $100 or $200 a month," said Mohamed Ag Hamalek, a Tuareg tourist guide in Timbuktu, whose family until recently earned their keep hauling rock salt by camel train, using the stars to navigate the Sahara. Haidara described northern Mali as a no-go area for the customs service.

"There is now a red line across northern Mali, nobody can go there," he said, sketching a map of the country on a scrap of paper with a ballpoint pen. "If you go there with feeble means ... you don't come back."

Venezuela uncooperative

Speaking in Dakar this week, Schmidt, the U.N. official, said that growing clandestine air traffic required urgent action on the part of the international community. "This should be the highest concern for governments ... For West African countries, for West European countries, for Russia and the U.S., this should be very high on the agenda," he said.

Stopping the trade, as the traffickers are undoubtedly aware, is a huge challenge -- diplomatically, structurally and economically.

Venezuela, the takeoff or refueling point for aircraft making the trip, has a confrontational relationship with Colombia, where President Alvaro Uribe has focused on crushing the FARC's 45-year-old insurgency. The nation's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez, won't allow in the DEA to work in the country. In a measure of his hostility to Washington, he scrambled two F16 fighter jets last week to intercept an American P3 aircraft -- a plane used to seek out and track drug traffickers -- which he said had twice violated Venezuelan airspace.

He says the United States and Colombia are using anti-drug operations as a cover for a planned invasion of his oil-rich country. Washington and Bogota dismiss the allegation.

In terms of curbing trafficking, the DEA has by far the largest overseas presence of any U.S. federal law enforcement, with 83 offices in 62 countries. But it is spread thin in Africa where it has just four offices -- in Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa -- though there are plans to open a fifth office in Kenya.

Law enforcement agencies from Europe as well as Interpol are also at work to curb the trade. But locally, officials are quick to point out that Africa is losing the war on drugs.
The most glaring problem, as Mali's example shows, is a lack of resources.

The only arrests made in connection with the Boeing came days after it was found in the desert -- and those incarcerated turned out to be desert nomads cannibalizing the plane's aluminum skin, probably to make cooking pots.

They were soon released. Police in Guinea Bissau, meanwhile, told Reuters they have few guns, no money for gas for vehicles given by donor governments and no high security prison to hold criminals.

Corruption is also a problem. The army has freed several traffickers charged or detained by authorities seeking to tackle the problem, police and rights groups said.

Passengers, cargo 'come back on those planes'

Serious questions remain about why Malian authorities took so long to report the Boeing's discovery to the international law enforcement community. What is particularly worrying to U.S. interests is that the networks of aircraft are not just flying one way -- hauling coke to Africa from Latin America -- but are also flying back to the Americas.

The internal Department of Homeland Security memorandum reviewed by Reuters cited one instance in which an aircraft from Africa landed in Mexico with passengers and unexamined cargo.

The Gulfstream II jet arrived in Cancun, by way of Margarita Island, Venezuela, en route from Africa. The aircraft, which was on an aviation watch list, carried just two passengers.

• One was a U.S. national with no luggage, the other a citizen of the Republic of Congo with a diplomatic passport and a briefcase, which was not searched.

"The obvious huge concern is that you have a transportation system that is capable of transporting tons of cocaine from west to east," said the aviation specialist who wrote the Homeland Security report.

"But it's reckless to assume that nothing is coming back, and when there's terrorist organizations on either side of this pipeline, it should be a high priority to find out what is coming back on those airplanes."

The Rest @ MSNBC News

SNC-Lavalin Engineering Abducted in Algeria

Algiers - An armed group abducted an Algerian engineer in south-east Algeria who was working for the Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin, a daily newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The abduction, not yet claimed by any group, took place on Sunday morning in Djebahia, near Bouira, 120km from the capital Algiers, El-Watan said on its website.

The daily newspaper Echorouk reports that the armed group kidnapped the engineer, whose identity has not been revealed, into a vehicle and drove off to an "unknown destination".

The Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin is building a water distribution and recycling plant project in the Bouira region, south-east Algeria. - Sapa-AFP

The Rest @ AFP vis IOL South Africa






Shimron Issachar

Six al Qaida Cell Commanders to Surrender in Algeria?

The following is from a brand new blog of unconfirmed veracity, and claims that his report came from the Middle East News Line Cairo branch, but I cannot trace it back to its source, however, we will be reading their output overtime

- Shimron Issachar

Algeria Expects Imminent Surrender Of AQIM Agents

CAIRO [MENL] -- Algeria has been preparing for the imminent surrender of six senior Al Qaida operatives.

Security sources said six cell commanders of the Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb were conducting negotiations for their surrender to Algerian authorities. The sources said the two sides were discussing the prospect of amnesty or reduction of any jail sentence for the insurgents.

The Rest @ Al Darb

possibly related from MENL- Shimron

CAIRO [MENL] -- Al Qaida has overseen a network that operates in Spain and has targeted neighboring Morocco.An indictment of suspected Al Qaida insurgents have disclosed plans by an Islamic network to conduct attacks in several cities of Morocco. Theindictment, relayed to the Court of Appeals in Sale, focused on theso-called Abu Yassin cell, aligned to the Al Qaida Organization in theIslamic Maghreb and which was said to have shuttled between Spain and Morocco.

Algiera Prepares for Ramadan by Claiming AQIM success

Algerians celebrate Ramadan2009-08-21 14:19

Boumerdes - Despite ongoing Islamist militant attacks, Algerians relaxing at the seaside are more concerned by the rising cost of meat and vegetables at the start of Ramadan than security.
"Security is far from being our main concern," said Abdelalik, who sat with his wife at a seafront cafe in Boumerdes, an hour's drive from Algiers, with the Islamic fasting month to begin on Saturday.

"I'm mostly concerned about making it to the end of the month, with Ramadan coming and the start of the school year" set for September 13, he said.

Algerians spend a fortune on food for the traditional breaking of the fast, held every day at sunset during the holy month. And prices of fruit, vegetables and meat all "go up every year during Ramadan" , Abdelalik said.

But not everyone can afford the traditional sumptuous feasts, with 1.2 million disadvantaged families getting help from the state this year.
Militant attacks

"Security? That's a funny question. We don't even give it a thought," said a youth, on his way to the town's vast, parasol-spotted beach with three friends.

They walk away from further questions, preferring to make the most of the Mediterranean waters ahead of Ramadan, when daytime bathing is prohibited.

Despite the apparent nonchalance, the area around Boumerdes, along with Tizi Ouzou to the east, are classified "red" because of the number of militant attacks by armed groups including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).

• Police are omnipresent on main roads, setting up checkpoints along avenues in Boumerdes which is nevertheless enjoying a real estate boom.
• The traffic jams are hellish and resorts along the coast have had their "No Vacancy" signs out since the start of the summer holiday season.

Bombing at a beach

Right up to the last day before Ramadan, families relax in the shade of parasols on one of the beaches at Tigzirt, near Tizi Ouzou, where a policeman was killed by a bombing at a beach observation post days earlier.

The "Delphine" security plan, implemented every year to protect places of summer recreation will remain in place throughout Ramadan.

But "there will not be any special measures" because police "are mobilised throughout the year, whether during Ramadan or any other time," national security director Ali Tunsi said in the run-up the Muslim holy month.

Algerian newspapers said security forces were relentlessly battling militant groups claiming allegiance to Aqim.

Helicopter gunships

Unconfirmed reports said at least 50 militants have been killed, captured or given themselves up since the beginning of August.

A broad ground operation follows every militant attack, backed by helicopter gunships to target the scrubland where the Islamists might be hiding.

Troops regularly sweep through vast areas in the coastal region after attacks on military convoys, such as an ambush on July 29 that killed at least 11 soldiers near the popular resort of Tipaza.

The REst @ News 24/ SAPA

AQIM Murders 39-year-old American Christopher Leggett in Algeria

‘Our dogs and cats will enjoy eating the dead bodies of your boys’

Western intelligence services are on high alert as an escalation in violence in North Africa suggests Al-Qaeda has penetrated vast swathes of the continent
From Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg

ELEVEN DAYS ago, scarcely noticed by the international media, guerrillas in Algeria aligned to the terror group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) detonated two huge roadside bombs against a convoy of vehicles 125 miles south-east of the capital, Algiers.

The convoy, travelling near Bordj Bou Arreridj in the Kabylia range of the Atlas Mountains, comprised paramilitary police vehicles escorting Chinese workers to a site where they were building a new highway.

After disabling the convoy with two improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the Islamic militants raked the disabled vehicles with small-arms fire. By the end of the ambush, 18 policemen and one Chinese worker lay dead. Another six gendarmes and two Chinese were wounded.

As well as causing dismay within the Algerian government, Western governments and intelligence agencies took extra-special note of the Bordj Bou Arreridj attack for many reasons.

• First, although it was one of many attacks in the past two years by AQIM, which has training bases in the Kabylia mountains, rising to 7000ft,
• The sophistication of the IEDs suggests the group may have been joined by top operatives returning from training with Islamist groups in Iraq or Pakistan, where roadside bomb-making has become a deadly art form.
• Second, it coincides with deadly AQIM strikes elsewhere in Africa. Al-Jazeera TV said it had received a recorded statement from the north African wing of the international terror outfit saying it was responsible for the slaying on June 23 of 39-year-old American Christopher Leggett in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania.
  
• AQIM said in the video statement that Leggett was assassinated for allegedly trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. "Two knights of the Islamic Maghreb succeeded to kill the infidel American Christopher Leggett for his Christianising activities," said AQIM. "The organisation in Mauritania carried out the attack at a time when savage US bombs are mowing down our Muslim brothers in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
  

Leggett was shot in the head several times from close range outside the computer and language school he had directed since 2003.

"With grace from Allah, we were able to assassinate him, kill him, and purify the land of Mauritania from his criminal presence," the AQIM statement added.

AQIM has also claimed responsibility for two other attacks in Mauritania - the killing of four French tourists in December 2007, which prompted the cancellation of the Paris-Dakar car rally, and a small-arms attack on the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott last year, in which no-one was hurt.

The third reason why western intelligence service are now sitting up and taking worried notice of AQIM is that the Bordj Bou Arreridj ambush followed the execution four weeks ago of British tourist Edwin Dyer in an area of Mali near Algeria's southern border by a group claiming to be aligned to AQIM.

The group issued a statement saying it had carried out its threat to kill Dyer - who was kidnapped in January in a border area between Mali and Niger - after Britain failed to meet a demand to release from detention Abu Qatada, a Jordanian militant reputed to be the European envoy of Osama bin Laden.

The ambush, the Leggett assassination and the Dyer execution across a vast area of north-west Africa could be dismissed as isolated attacks by fanatics suggesting more power and support than they really enjoy.

But gruesome events some 4500 miles to the east, right across Africa from Mauritania, last Thursday raised the alarm in Washington about al-Qaeda penetration of Africa to such an extent that the Obama administration said it was sending arms and ammunition to the beleaguered government of Somalia to counter al-Qaeda-aligned insurgents who are bringing a grotesque form of sharia law to the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu.

The 40 tonnes of American weaponry were despatched despite an arms embargo imposed on Somalia by the United Nations Security Council. Washington sought a waiver on the embargo and the Security Council agreed.

A top administration official said the sending of arms to Somalia signalled President Obama's determination to try to thwart a takeover of the Horn of Africa state by the al-Qaeda-inspired Al Shabaab (The Youth) Islamic rebel group.

The official said: "A decision was made at the highest level to ensure the Somalia government does not fall and that everything is done to strengthen government security forces to counter the rebels."

Al Shabaab, which the Washington official estimates has some 200 foreign jihadists in its ranks, stepped up attacks in early May and now controls most of south Somalia and most of the suburbs of Mogadishu.

Western nations and their allies in Africa fear the al Shabaab insurgents could destabilise the entire East Africa and Horn of Africa region, exploiting widespread discontent with pervasive poverty and corrupt governments and providing safe havens for hardline Islamists from the Middle East and Asia. "We remain concerned about the prospects of an al Shabaab victory," said the official.

HOODED al Shabaab fighters last Thursday used machetes to hack off a hand and a foot from each of four men in a northern Mogadishu suburb as punishment for theft. "We have carried out this sentence under the Islamic religion and we will punish like this everyone who carries out such acts," said al Shabaab official Sheikh Ali Mohamud Fidow.

The men, aged 18 to 25, first screamed for help and then in pain. Some of the estimated 300 spectators, compelled to attend by al Shabaab militants, vomited as the amputations progressed.
When a comparatively moderate Islamist, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, was elected Somalia's new President in January there was hope he could end two decades of slaughter by achieving reconciliation with the hardliners intent on imposing a very strict version of Islam on their countrymen.

But Somalia's national security minister Omar Hashi Aden and 24 other people were killed in a suicide attack on June 18 in western Somalia, for which al Shabaab claimed responsibility. On June 17 Mogadishu's police chief died during fighting with al Shabaab insurgents in the capital, that saw at least 34 other people killed. In March, Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to overthrow President Ahmed, calling him a tool of the US in an audiotape that outlined al-Qaeda's ambitions in Somalia.
"Omar Hashi Aden's death is a huge blow to the government," said Ali Said Omar, director of the Nairobi-based Centre for Peace and Democracy, an independent Somalia research organisation. He said the national security minister had become an important figure in the government because he was successfully recruiting militiamen to fight anti-government forces in central and southern regions of Somalia where the government had few allies.
Before last week's double amputations, al Shabaab had previously carried out executions, floggings, single-limb amputations and the stoning to death of an alleged teenage adultress, mainly in the southern port of Kismayu. Movies, football games and dancing are banned in areas it controls, while men and women cannot travel together on public transport. Al Shabaab's strict practices have shocked many Somalis, who historically have practised Islam in a moderate, easy-going way that scandalises fundamentalists.
Security and defence bosses in Kenya, to the south of Somalia, are openly frantic that Somalia could become East Africa's Afghanistan, attracting extremists from its neighbours to be trained in terrorism in order to return to their own countries to set up al-Qaeda-style networks. According to intelligence sources, a Kenyan Islamist group, Al-Muhajurin, is already fighting in Somalia alongside al Shabaab. Believed to be about 180-strong, some of Al-Muhajurin's fighters are battle-hardened from action in Afghanistan.
Al Shabaab has threatened to annex Kenyan territory. A Kenyan Ministry of Internal Security official said that while Kenya does not feel physically threatened "in the conventional sense," it does fear massive destabilisation and a threat to its already shaky tourist industry - not least because al-Qaeda has released video statements saying its dream is to create a Taliban-type super-state running all the way south to Mozambique.
Already the bloody conflict in Somalia has created in Kenya the world's largest refugee camp. Dadaab, just 50 miles from the Somali border, is home to more than 280,000 refugees in an area meant to hold just 90,000. Some 3500 people escape across Somalia's border with Kenya every week, fleeing the conflict in their dysfunctional country. Dadaab's boreholes are stretched to breaking point and aid workers fear outbreaks of disease if the sprawling site's 35,000 latrines are not renovated. Every day the camp generates 300 tonnes of waste that need to be removed. The UN is trying to find more land to accommodate the waves of new arrivals but faces resistance from the Kenyan government, which would prefer to see the refugees return across the border.
Despite the presence of 2000 US special force troops in Djibouti, to Somalia's north, and an unprecedented international naval force involving more than 20 countries off the Somali coast to fight the piracy that has grown, in large part, out of the chaos on land, non-African countries consistently reject the urging by Somalia's neighbours to intervene onshore, because of fear of the consequences. A UN-backed US intervention in Somalia in 1993 cost 18 Delta Force and Ranger commando lives, with the battered corpses of two of the US soldiers dragged as trophies through the streets of Mogadishu by angry mobs, scenes shown repeatedly on television and later portrayed in the book and film Black Hawk Down. For the Americans it was a catastrophic defeat - elite units of the world's most powerful army humiliated by a few rag-tag militias.
Nevertheless, President Obama has raised the stakes by sending weaponry to Somalia's government. If that does not stabilise the situation, it is unclear what his Plan B is - if he has one.
AN al Shabaab spokesman, commenting on the possibility of foreign troop intervention, said: "Our dogs and cats will enjoy eating the dead bodies of your boys if you try to respond to the calls of these stooges the Somalia government. Somali young Mujahideen will fight any troops deployed here until our last holy fighter passes away."

President Ahmed has appealed to Ethiopia and Kenya to send soldiers to help his forces fight al Shabaab. But both countries are loath to step in. Neither can afford a big military offensive. Ethiopia lost 800 men when it staged an invasion of Somalia in 2007-2008.

Meanwhile, as the West, Kenya and Ethiopia worry about al-Qaeda-inspired events in Somalia, a close eye remains focused on Algeria's AQIM. Its leader, Abu Musab Abdul-Wadud, is believed to have 1000 fighters and his declared ambition is to carry out actions in Spain, France and Britain. Paris is already investigating reported cells of the group in France.

Intelligence agencies are waiting anxiously to see if the Bordj Bou Arreridj attack was just an anomaly - or the beginning of a deadly new trend.

The Rest @ Sunday Hearld

Insurgent ambush kills 24 Algerian police - report

By Christian Lowe and Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Gunmen ambushed and killed 24 Algerian paramilitary police in the North African oil and gas producer's deadliest insurgent attack in nearly a year, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

Algeria's government has been fighting Islamist militants allied to the al Qaeda network. Security forces have been able to reduce the level of violence but, although weakened, the insurgents remain a threat.

• The militants attacked on Wednesday evening using roadside bombs and guns when the paramilitary police passed in a convoy along a highway about 180 km (110 miles) east of the capital, the newspaper Echorouk reported.
• When they left the scene of the attack they took with them six police off-road vehicles as well as weapons and police uniforms, the newspaper cited security sources and local people as saying.
  

There was no official confirmation of the attack. Two Algerian security sources, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters there had been an ambush and more than 20 paramilitary police had been killed.

A death toll of 24 would be the biggest from a single attack since August 19 last year, when 48 people were killed in a bomb attack on a training school for paramilitary police 55 km (34 miles) east of Algiers.

AL QAEDA SENDING A MESSAGE

Algeria is still emerging from a conflict in the 1990s between Islamists and government forces which killed 200,000 people, according to estimates from international non-governmental organisations.

Security crackdowns and a campaign to persuade the militants to lay down their arms have led to a sharp decline in the number of attacks.

But a hard core of Islamist militants is still active, now under the banner of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and the past few weeks have seen an upsurge in violence.

• Insurgents killed five paramilitary gendarmes late in May and a week later shot dead nine soldiers.
• At the start of this month, AQIM killed a British man, Edwin Dyer, after holding him hostage in neighbouring Mali.
  

Security experts say the increase in attacks does not mean the group is growing in strength but that it does retain the capability to strike government targets.

"Make no mistake: al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is declining," Rachid Ould Bousseafa, the deputy editor of the Echorouk newspaper who writes on security issues, told Reuters.But he said: "Al Qaeda wanted to send a strong message that it is capable of planning and executing a big attack."

• Though AQIM has not targeted oil and gas infrastructure in Algeria, international energy firms -- which include BP, StatoilHydro, Repsol and Total -- operate under heavy security.
  
• Diplomats say the violence also has the potential to spread across the Mediterranean into Europe, where AQIM has a network of undercover cells providing logistical support.
  
• The newspaper report said Wednesday's ambush was carried out between the settlements of El Meher and El Mansourah on the N5 highway, a major route linking the capital, Algiers, to cities in the east of Algeria.
  
• It said the paramilitary police who came under attack had been assigned to guard a group of Chinese construction workers building a new east-west road link across Algeria. It did not say if any of the workers had been hurt in the attack.
  
• (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
• 
  The Rest @ Swissinfo