AL QAEDA IN NORTH AFRICA
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT…WHAT WAS ONCE OPTIMISTACALLY KNOWN AS THE “EMERGING CONTINENT” IS NOW A TRAGIC SWAMP OF FAMINE, PANDEMICS, TRIBAL WARS AND GROWING JIHAD…..AND WHERE IS THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS? …..RSK
October 23, 2009
Exclusive: Al Qaeda’s North African Connection (Part Three of Three)
Adrian Morgan
Click here for Part One and here for Part Two
The activities of AQIM
When the newly re-structured AQIM (al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb) attacked foreign oil workers on December 10, 2006, it signaled a new direction. As “GSPC” (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat), the group had lost much of its impetus. The attack on Brown and Root-Condor’s workers which took place at Bouchaoui, nine miles west of Algiers, was the first attack on foreigners by GSPC Islamists in several years.
Linked with al Qaeda, the group returned to some of its previous tactics, including the kidnapping of foreigners. The scale of GSPC/AQIM’s bombing attacks against Algerian government targets would increase. In a pattern that has continued through to this year, the group has killed foreigners in brutal manners resembling the actions of the early GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé).
On Thursday, October 12th, a month after Abu Musab Abdelwadud had sworn his allegiance to al Qaeda, Rabah Aïssat, chairman of the People’s Assembly of the Province of Tizi Ouzou was shot dead in a cafe at Aïn Zaoula.
With GSPC/AQIM’s new allegiance to al Qaeda, the activities in the south of the group’s region became more pronounced. This region had been led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar (Moktar Belmoktar, pictured). Belmoktar had been an ally of Hassan Hattab, the founder of GSPC. When Hassab was ousted, Belmokhtar had consolidated his position as the “southern emir” of GSPC. In 2002, he was nicknamed “the Uncatchable” by French authorities. He is also called “The One-eyed.” Belmokhtar’s terrain stretched beyond national borders, extending into Mali and Mauritania.
In September 2006 his right-hand man, an individual known as AbdelHamid, was reported killed in fighting with Tuaregs in Mali. This man appears to be Abdel Hamid Zaïd Essoufi (aka Abdelhamid abou Zaïd, Abdelhamid Essoufi), a senior figure within the AQIM hierarchy. There are frequent reports of deaths of GSPC/AQIM figures. Mokhtar Belmokhtar himself has frequently been falsely reported as dead.
On October 23, 2006 at least six Malian Tuaregs were killed by Belmokhtar’s forces.
By October 31, 2006 a year after the government’s reconciliation process had first been announced, 442 jihadists had accepted terms of amnesty. But bombings continued. On October 30, 2006, two vehicle bombs detonated within five minutes of each other beside police headquarters in the districts of Réghaïa and Dergana in the east of Algiers province. Three people, including a woman, were killed, and 24 people, mostly police officers, were injured.
A week after the Bouchaoui incident, where foreign workers were attacked, French security forces warned that two stages of the Paris-Dakar Rally should be cancelled. These stages, had they taken place, would have taken drivers through eastern Mauritania and northern Mali on January 16 and 17, 2007, passing directly into the territory of Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
A rocket attack was made against an army post in Batna in the east of Algeria, on January 30, 2007. Five soldiers were killed in the attack, and in the ensuing fighting, a further 10 Islamists were killed.
On February 6, 2007, Yakoub Khelifa, a former mayor of Benchoud, in the northern district of Boumerdes, was shot dead. Khelifa was a retired policeman. Four days before, on Friday February 2nd, a homemade bomb went off in the changing rooms of Benchoud soccer stadium during a match. A year earlier, on March 24, 2006, another mayor of Benchoud, 48-year-old Djellal Brahim, was killed, shot in the head outside his home.
Osama bin Laden added legitimacy to GSPC’s affiliation to al Qaeda. His deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, gave his blessing to the group on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, but on January 26, 2007, Abu Musab Abdelwadud announced online that “We were anxious to change the name from the announcement of our allegiance (to Al Qaeda), but we could not do so before consulting Sheikh Osama bin Laden, God preserve him. Sheikh Osama bin Laden sent his order and his choice. So, the group tells all Muslims in Algeria and beyond that it has shed its former name… and is now called the Al Qaeda in the territory of the Islamic Maghreb.” Nouredine Yazid Zerhouni, Algeria’s interior minister, responded by stating that new name or not, security forces would still use the same methods to combat GSPC/AQIM.
On February 13, 2007, multiple bombs were set off in Kabiliye, in the east of the nation. An official AQIM message appeared online, praising “the brave mujahideen” who carried out the car bombings, and denouncing Algeria as a “State of thieves, slaves, Jews and Christians and children of France.”
Twenty-five fugitive terrorists were tried in absentia on February 26, 2007 and were sentenced to death. Criminal court magistrates at Bourmerdes also gave three others jail terms of 20 years. Two days later, the Boumerdes courthouse saw 11 more terrorists sentenced to death for their part in a bomb and gun attack near Zemmouri racecourse on October 17, 2003, in which four Algerian soldiers were killed. Various security force checkpoints in Boumerdes district were attacked on February 28, but only two people were injured.
On March 3, 2007, AQIM mounted a bomb attack against a bus full of employees of a Russian company. A Russian engineer and three Algerians were killed. Five people were injured. The attack took place at Hayoun, near Ain Defla in southern Algeria as the workers were laying a gas pipeline. AQIM released an internet statement: “Mujahedeen (Islamic warriors) using a high intensity bomb targeted the convoy of Russian infidels working for the Russian company Stroytransgaz. We dedicate this modest conquest to our Muslim brothers in Chechnya … victims of the criminal Putin.”
Suicide Bombings
On April 11, 2007, AQIM mounted a double bombing in Algiers, the capital. A total of 33 people died. One of the bombs was aimed at the office of prime minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem (below). The second attack was carried out by a suicide bomber at a police station in Bab Ezzouar at the edge of the capital. More than 30 people were killed.
The use of suicide bombers had not been a hallmark of GSPC (or GIA)activities in Algeria before it merged with al Qaeda. The employment of suicide bombers that began on April 11, 2007 signaled a new departure. Between April 2007 and September 2008, a total of 17 suicide attacks took place.
Localized violence reached a peak in the run-up to elections which were held on May 17, 2007. In the east of the country, in the days before the voting began, a series of bomb attacks and ambushes caused 18 soldiers and 22 Islamist fighters to be killed. The elections, once held, gave the incumbent government a mandate to continue their policies.
On July 11, 2007, a suicide attacker blew up the refrigerated truck he was driving at a barracks at Lakhdaria village near Bouira, 75 miles east of Algiers. Eight soldiers were killed at the scene, with two dying later.
On August 14, 2007, a former FIS- and then GIA-affiliated Islamist rebel was critically injured in a bomb attack. A bomb was placed in a car outside a mosque, and went off when Mustapha Kertali left the place of worship. Kertali had supported the government since 1999. He died from his injuries.
A bomb attack by AQIM, which appears to have been aimed at assassinating President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, took place at Batna, 280 miles east of Algiers, on September 6, 2007. The president was scheduled to visit the town when a suicide bomber, who carried his device in a plastic bag, blew himself up within the waiting crowd. 22 people died, and 107 were injured.
At Dellys on September 8, a Coast Guard barracks was attacked. A van which usually delivered food supplies was used as a bomb by a suicide attacker. At least 30 people were killed and 47 people were injured.
On September 14, 2007, at Zemmouri, 31 miles east of Algiers, a bomb was detonated outside a police compound. Three died and five others were wounded.
On September 21, 2007 a suicide bomber in a car loaded with 250 kilograms of explosives attacked a convoy of foreign engineering workers near Lakhdaria. These were under a police escort. Nine people were injured, including two French and two Italian workers. Five Algerian policemen were also among the injured. The engineers were employees of the French company Razel, and were working on the massive Koudat Acerdoune dam project. AQIM later named the suicide attacker as Ben Othman Jaffar. The attack upon the Razel workers came a day after Ayman al-Zawahiri of Al Qaeda had called for support to AQIM, to “purge the Maghreb of the sons of France and Spain.”
On December 11, 2007 two vehicle bombs, driven by suicide bombers, were used to attack targets in Algiers, the capital. The first bomb detonated outside the Supreme Court (above). A bus full of law students was passing when the bomb went off, and many of these were amongst the fatalities. The second bomb was set off minutes later, outside the UNHCR building. At least 10 UN staff members were killed. A statement on an Islamist website claimed the attackers were named Abdul-Rahman al-Aasmi and Ami Ibrahim Abou Othman. Picures of the two men were shown, posing with rifles. In all, at least 67 people died and more than 150 were injured.
Beyond Algeria’s Borders
AQIM/GSPC activists were already established in the countries of Mauritania and Mali. A notorious GSPC leader in the south had been Amari Saifi, a former deputy of Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Saifi had also been a paratrooper in the Algerian Army. Saifi bought loyalty from officials in Mali, and even married the 14-year-old daughter of a Mauritanian tribal leader.
Saifi became known to the media after 32 European tourists were kidnapped in the Sahara region. His fame would not last long. He was chased by security forces through Mali and fled to Chad where he himself became the hostage (pictured) of a rebel group, the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad. In October 2005 Libyan and Chadian authorities returned him to Algeria. His current fate is unknown.
Mokhtar Belmokhtar is close to both Abdel Hamid Zaïd Essoufi and Yahia Djouadi who command their own factions within the Sahel-Sahara Zone. Abdel Hamid commands a faction in Mauritania. This is called the Tarek Ibn Zaid battalion, after one of his own aliases. He was appointed to lead this group by Amari Saifi. Djouadi’s sphere of operation is in northern Mali. On July 3, 2008, Djaouli was listed as an al Qaeda terrorist by the UN. On July 17, 2008, Djouadi and Abdel Hamid were listed by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
At the end of 2007, AQIM activists in Mauritania committed a horrific crime designed to damage the tourist industry. A French family was on holiday in Mauritiania, and on Christmas Eve 2007 they were in Aleg, 150 miles east of Nouakchott. They were attacked by three gunmen and four members of the family were shot dead. The father had severe head injuries.
Several suspects would be captured in Mauritania after the killings, though two suspects had escaped to Guinea-Bissau. These were apprehended. They were named as Mohamed Ould Chabarnou and and Sidi Ould Sidna, who were described by a police inspector as “presumed al Qaeda terrorists.” The two were deported to Mauritania to stand trial.
On April 2, 2008, Sidi Ould Sidna escaped from custody and went on the run, being givien a “Red Notice” by Interpol. He was eventually captured on April 30, 2008. He had been captured together with Khadim Ould Semane, who was the alleged leader of an attack upon the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott that had taken place three months earlier.
Khadim Ould Semane was a Mauritanian who had joined GSPC/AQIM. He was apparently sent into Mauritania by AQIM to establish a cell in the country. He called his faction Al-Ansar Allah al-Murabitun. Semane would be a local leader of AQIM in Mauritania at the time of the Aleg attack, and was rounded up after the killing. He had been imprisoned at one stage, but in 2006 he had escaped with two others and was incarcerated once more. When placed on trial, all three had been acquitted for lack of evidence.
The Paris-Dakar Rally, which had been diverted in 2007 on account of GSPC/AQIM activity, would be cancelled altogether in 2008 because of the group’s militants. It was the first time since the annual rally was initiated in 1978 that it was cancelled.
On February 1, 2008 gunmen attacked the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott. Though three French civilians were injured by stray bullets, the Israeli ambassador, Boaz Bismuth, claimed that no embassy staff members were hurt. AQIM claimed responsibility for the attack. Nefa Foundation has published a translation of the al Qaeda statement, which can be read (in PDF format) here.
On September 18, 2008, the bodies of 11 Mauritanian soldiers and their civilian guide were found in Zouerate in Aklet Tourine. The 12 individuals were kidnapped by AQIM a week previously. All the bodies were mutilated and also decapitated. Mauritania, politically in the wilderness after a coup that had taken place on August 6th, requested international assistance to deal with the activities of AQIM.
AQIM had called for a “Holy War” following the coup. After the murder of the soldiers, they celebrated the incident, which they called the “Battle of Zouerate.” This appeared on September 22, 2008. A translation (PDF format) from NEFA is here.
AQIM were also responsible for the first suicide attack in Mauritania, which took place on August 8, 2009. Two French guards and a Mauritanian woman were injured in the blast. The attacker was wearing a suicide belt, and according to eyewitnesses, he went towards two French individuals who were jogging, and then cried out “Allahu Akbar” before blowing himself up. Another witness said: “I turned towards him, only to see smoke, dispersed human remains and wounded people. It was a horrible scene, and I have never seen anything like it in my life.” An announcement from AQIM named its operative as Obeida Abu Moussa al-Basri.
The most recent atrocity to be carried out by the southern wing of AQIM took place on June 23, 2009 when an American teacher called Chris Leggett was murdered in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania. He was shot several times. Shortly after his murder, AQIM announced that it had carried out the killing. Mr. Leggett came from Cleveland, Tennessee and taught computer skills in an impoverished neighborhood of Nouakchott.
Fighting the “Apostates”
The suicide attacks which had started in Algeria in 2007 continued in 2008. On July 23, 2008 on the outskirts of Lakhdaria, 13 soldiers were injured when their truck was hit by a suicide attacker on a motorcycle.
In August 2008, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb mounted a series of attacks in the northern province of Tizi Ouzou. The increased aggression, as suggested by Algeria’s Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, may have been a response to actions by Algeria’s security forces. 12 terrorists had been killed in Beni Douala in on the night of 7-9 August 2008. This incident in the forested region near Takhoukht was the culmination of an intense security operation that had started in June. This operation commenced after Beni Amrane train station was bombed on June 8, killing 12 people.
AQIM released an internet “press release” in which it identified those who carried out the August 2008 “revenge” attacks. A translation of this press release (in PDF format) can be found here. The press release made no mention of a failed suicide attack that had taken place outside a police station in Tizi Ouzou city on August 3rd. The bomber ripped himself to shreds and injured 12 people, but killed no one. What is significant in the AQIM statement is the manner in which anyone supporting the Algerian government is labeled as an “apostate.”
AQIM mentions an attack which injured three policemen in the forested region near Tikzirt. Two bombs had been detonated “on the apostate police” on August 10th. Two of the injured needed urgent treatment. After exchanging gunfire, the assailants fled into the forest.
On August 19, 2008 at Khamis Kur in Issers, 35 miles east of the capital, a suicide bomber driving a truck filled with explosives detonated his vehicle outside a police training school as recruits lined up to be interviewed. Forty-three people were killed, 42 of them civilians, including relatives of the potential recruits. The suicide bomber was only identified by AQIM as “Haroun.”
The following day, Bouira was hit by a double car bombing, which killed a dozen people. Twelve Algerian employees of a multinational engineering firm were killed on their way to work when one car bomb, parked near a hotel, blew up. AQIM, who said that this bomber was called Abdelrahman Abu Zaynab al-Mauritani, claimed that the Algerian engineers were “Canadian.” The company they worked for is SNC-Lavalin, which has its headquarters in Montreal. The other car bomb, driven by a terrorist called Abu Bakr al-Assimi had targeted a military compound on the outskirts of Bouira. AQIM stated this attack took the lives of “at least 10 soldiers,” a claim which is not backed up by available reports.
On August 17, 2008, 12 military personnel had been killed in an ambush near Skikda. AQIM described this encounter in delirious terms, where “with great bravery and fearlessness the lions of al-Tawheed vigorously harmed the apostates and killed at least 10 police dogs and wounded numerous more.” The dogs were canines, regarded as haram by many Muslims. AQIM celebrated the “booty” of weaponry that had been seized in the attack.
A full list of all AQIM attacks during 2008 can be found here.
Kidnapping
Attacks against police and military targets, actions which have always been associated with GSPC and its antecedents, continue to this day. Berbers in northeastern Algeria were reported in April 2008 to be showing signs of resentments at the methods employed by AQIM which incurred high civilian casualties.
It appears that kidnappings, which were carried out for profit by GIA and GSPC were again being employed for similar means. In Europe, there were numerous cells, and recruiting networks operated in Spain’s Costa del Sol, in Italy and also France and Belgium. These cells never made much money, but had successfully recruited individuals to go to Iraq to fight coalition troops. By the start of 2007, most Western governments had been alert to the traffic of jihadists into Iraq.
According to the Jamestown Foundation, 200 AQIM activists were killed between January 2008 and August 2008. Thomas Renard stated that AQIM had been “driven to the wall.”
Internationally, al Qaeda’s finances are currently thought to be drying out, so bargaining for hostages appeared to promise funding. Thirty-two European tourists were held in 2003, and some media reports had claimed then that the German government had paid GSPC $5 million for them to be released.
On February 22, 2008, two Austrian tourists were snatched in Tunisia. They were Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51. On March 14, 2008, AQIM gave a three day deadline for the release of GSPC/AQIM prisoners in Tunisia and Algeria. A statement read: “Austria would be responsible for the lives of the two hostages should the deadline come and our demands are not met. As you care for the safety of your citizens, we care to free our brothers who face the ugliest forms of torture at the prisons of Tunisia… and Algeria.” AQIM additionally warned tourists to stay away from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.
The deadline for the lives of Kloiber and Ebner passed, with no news of their status. There were suggestions that the kidnappers wanted 5 million euros ($7.5 million) ransom. Additionally, a radio report claimed that the pair would be freed if a Muslim couple who had just been convicted in Vienna, Austria, for making terror threats, were released. Eventually, the two Austrians were freed in Mali on October 30, 2008.
On December 14, 2008, Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler (pictured) and Louis Guay were found to be missing on a trip in Niger. A Tuareg group calling itself Front des Forces Redressement made an announcement on its website, claiming that it had kidnapped the men and their guide and driver.
On February 17, 2009 AQIM announced that it was holding the two diplomats. The spokesman, who called himself Salah Abu Mohammed, claimed in an audio recording that AQIM was holding four European tourists who were seized on January 22 in eastern Mali, near Timbuktu. They were a Swiss couple, a Briton and a German woman who had been attending a Tuareg cultural event at Anderamboukane, and had been on a trip organized by German tour company Oase Reisen.
The diplomats’ driver was released on March 21st, and after much negotiation, Fowler and Guay were freed on April 21st. With them, the two women among the European hostages, Marianne Petzold from Germany and Gabriella Greiner from Switzerland, were released. Greiner’s husband and a Briton remained in captivity.
On April 26, 2009, AQIM delivered another message. It stated that Britain should release the radical cleric Abu Qatada, who was once described by a Spanish judge as “Al Qaeda’s ambassador in Europe.” Qatada’s sermons were found in the possession of members of the Hamburg Group, a cell which included 9/11 hijackers. AQIM gave a deadline of 20 days for the cleric to be freed, or the British hostage, Edwin Dyer, would be killed. Britain’s foreign office did not release Mr. Dyer’s name.
On June 3, 2009 it was announced that Edwin Dyer had been beheaded. AQIM issued a statement which read: “The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west…” The killer is suspected to be Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
Werner Greiner was freed in July 2009, appearing in the desert region of Gao in the north of Mali. On July 13, 2009, Algerian newspaper El Khabar reported that Werner Griener had been freed after a ransom of 3 million euros ($4.5 million) had been paid to AQIM, though it did not say who had paid the money.
In June 2009, the Jamestown Foundation reported on an interview given by the head of AQIM’s Political Committee. Abu Abdullah Ahmad (aka Ahmed Deghdegh) claimed that there had been an influx of jihadists to AQIM. These new fighters had arrived from neighboring nations in North Africa.
Ahmad had contempt for Hassan Hattab, who had founded GSPC in 1998 but had since renounced the path of jihad. Ahmad said: “Hattab does not have any influence or respect in the mujahideen circles. On the contrary, the mujahideen has considered him for years a traitor who sold his eternity for his life.” He also spoke of the need to liberate Cueta and Melilla. These are Spanish-controlled ports in the Moroccan coast.
Al Qaeda’s leaders have made frequent mentions of “Andalus,” the name given to Spain when it was under Islamic control, following the invasion in 711 AD by Tariq bin Zayid (Tarek Ibn Zaid). Earlier this month, AQIM announced that it had formed a new media wing called “Al-Andalus.”
The full transcript of the announcement, translated for the NEFA foundation, can be found (in PDF format) here.
Kelly Doffing of Global Security Monitor observes: “That AQIM created their own media branch and disavowed publications by any other foundation signifies both that AQIM has expanded its focus and that Central Command is losing centralized control over its regional affiliates.”
Whether this indicates weakness on the part of al Qaeda Central Command or not, it signifies a new confidence. The move suggests that AQIM may be nurturing ambitions to expand its sphere of operations, perhaps exploiting the networks already it has established in Spain. Though the task of reconquering Spain may seem impossible, the ports of Cueta and Mellila, colonized since 1415 AD, could be considered credible targets for AQIM. Cueta has already been associated with the activities of al Qaeda affiliate GICM.
The future of AQIM and its “Al-Andalus” project is unknown. The recent arrest of Adlene Hicheur, the CERN nuclear scientist, suggests that AQIM may have activists in all walks of life. One thing is certain. With existing cells, supporters and networks that they can draw upon in most Western European nations, AQIM is not going to fade away in the near future.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Adrian Morgan is a British based writer and artist. He has previously contributed to various publications, including the Guardian and New Scientist and is a former Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society. He is currently compiling a book on the demise of democracy and the growth of extremism in Britain.
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