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Africa North
Qaeda claims attacks on Mauritania soldiers
2007-12-30
Al Qaeda's wing in north Africa has said it was behind 15 attacks that it said had killed four Mauritanian soldiers, Al Arabiya television reported yesterday. "We are glad to inform our Muslim nation about the victories achieved by the mujahideen (fighters) of the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb through 15 simultaneous operations," a spokesman for the group said on an audio recording aired by the station.

The television said it could not authenticate the recording, which it said it had received, without giving further details. Mauritanian authorities had said gunmen travelling in two vehicles killed three Mauritanian soldiers in a desert clash on Thursday.

The spokesman said the attacks, some of them against troops in Algeria, were carried out late on Wednesday. There was no mention in the report of the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania on Monday, which officials have said may have been carried out by Islamic militants.

The attacks have raised fears that Al Qaeda-linked militants who have carried out attacks in Algeria and Morocco may be seeking to extend their operations southwards to Mauritania, Senegal and Mali.

Meanwhile, the organisers gave the green light yesterday for the 30th Dakar rally to proceed as planned through the African state of Mauritania despite security fears prompted by recent Al Qaeda linked attacks.

Mauritania has announced that it would mobilise 2,000 soldiers and 2,000 plainclothes police to monitor the rally as it passes through the country between January 11 and 19. "We are going ahead with the Mauritanian stages of the rally.... It now seems that the security situation is back on track," Etienne Lavigne, the French director of the event said. "There is nothing to fear, every precaution has been put in place," Interior Minister Yall Zakaria said.
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Africa North
Screech says Libyan Islamist group joins al Qaeda
2007-11-04
Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said a Libyan Islamist group had joined the militant organisation and he urged mujahideen in North Africa to topple the leaders of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. "Honourable members of the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya announce that they are joining the al Qaeda group to continue the march of their brothers," Zawahri said in a recording posted on the Internet on Saturday.

The Libyan group would be the second militant organisation to join al Qaeda this year after Algeria's armed GSPC said in January it had won approval from Osama bin Laden to rename itself Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb.

The Algerian-based network has claimed responsibility for a series of recent suicide attacks. Bombs in Morocco and gunfights in Tunisia also raised fears al Qaeda may be expanding in north African Maghreb states, potential launch pads for attacks on European targets. "Your good sons are gathering (in the Maghreb) under Islam and jihad's banner against America, France, Spain and their people ... O nation of jihad, support your sons so that we defeat our enemies and rid our homeland of their slaves," said Zawahri, naming leaders of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

The Fighting Islamic Group first announced its presence in 1995, vowing to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and launching a violent campaign in the OPEC oil exporting nation. Security analysts say it is a loose organisation that has many followers in Western countries, especially Britain. But it split last year after some members renounced violence in exchange for a government amnesty.
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Africa North
Morocco jails 8 officers for Al Qaeda plot leak
2007-08-09
A Moroccan military court has sentenced eight army officers to up to five years in prison for leaking military intelligence information about an Al Qaeda plot, lawyers and court officials said on Wednesday. The weekly Al Watan Alaan quoted a military intelligence document last month as saying that Al Qaeda had decided to send 12 Arab and four Pakistani fighters to carry out attacks in Morocco and other Maghreb states.

The Royal Armed Forces Permanent Court in Rabat found the officers guilty of divulging professional secrets and undermining state security. It sentenced them to prison terms of between six months and five years and fined four of them 10,000 Dirhams ($1,230) at a hearing on Tuesday.

The Maghreb region has been on alert since al Qaeda's North Africa wing, the Algerian-based Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, threatened to step up its war against "corrupt" regional rulers and their Western allies. In June, Morocco raised its security alert level to "maximum", suggesting an al Qaeda attack was imminent.

The Interior Ministry said it had obtained intelligence information on the threat but gave no details. Police arrested Al Watan's managing director Abderrahim Ariri and journalist Mustapha Hourmatallah over the report . The two men were charged with receiving and concealing stolen documents, and face up to two years in jail if convicted by a criminal court in Casablanca next week.
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Africa North
Morocco detains 15 terror suspects
2007-07-14
Moroccan police have detained 15 radical Islamists on suspicions of plotting terror attacks in the North African country, the justice minister said. "Arrests had been made, according to the information from the Kingdom's public prosecutor. Fifteen detainees are in custody, three of them had been extradited by Libya," Ahmed Bouzouba told Assabah newspaper in an interview published on Friday. "Indeed, these people were arrested as they prepared terrorist attacks," he added, declining to give details because of what he called the secrecy of the ongoing investigation. The minister's top aide confirmed to Reuters Bouzouba's remarks.

Neither Bouzouba nor his aide gave details on the three Moroccans arrested in Libya before their extradition to Rabat. Police sources said dozens of radical Islamists had fled a police crackdown in Morocco in the 1980s and 1990s to settle in Libya.

Last week, Morocco raised the security alert level to the highest rating of "maximum", suggesting an attack was imminent. Morocco's Interior Ministry said it obtained intelligence information on the threat in recent days but gave no details. The region has been on alert since Al Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa, the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, which is based in Algeria, threatened to escalate its war against "corrupt" governments in the region and their Western allies.

The Al Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility for attacks in Algeria in the latest four months, including three in Algiers on April 11 when 33 people were killed and another on Wednesday that killed eight soldiers at an army barracks in Lakhdaria, 120 km east of the capital. On April 14, two suicide bombers detonated explosive belts outside US diplomatic facilities on Casablanca, killing only themselves. The Rabat government at the time dismissed local media speculation of a link between attacks in Algiers and the death of the suicide bombers in Casablanca. Five other suicide bombers blew themselves also in Casablanca in April and March, killing only themselves and a police officer.
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Africa North
Algeria arrests 12 militants over bombings
2007-05-21
Algerian security forces have arrested 12 suspected Islamic militants accused of links to triple bombings last month and other attacks claimed by al Qaeda's north African wing, official media said on Sunday.

Authorities arrested one member of the alleged logistical cell within two weeks of the April 11 bombings in Algiers. By following the suspect's testimony, they rounded up 11 others, the APS news agency reported, citing unidentified security officials. It did not indicate when the 11 others were detained. The suspects were also involved in truck bomb attacks on October 30 on two police stations that killed six people, it said.

Security forces seized more than nine tons of nitric acid and a large amount of an ammonia chemical, stored in two garages in the town of Tidjelabine, 30 miles east of the capital, and used for making bombs, the report said. Another stash of explosives and electronic triggers were found near Draa Benkhedda, further east.

Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, has said it was behind all of the attacks. The militant support network was acting under orders from the group's local leader, Harek Zoheir, also known as Sofiane Fassila, who masterminded these attacks, the radio added. The arrests allowed the seizure of more than 9 tonnes of acid and large quantities of chemical products and electronic components used for remote detonation of bombs, it said. Police also seized products used in making explosives in two garages in Boumerdes province, some 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Algiers.

Government troops, on alert since the April bombings, have killed 26 militants in the past few days in Boumerdes and neighbouring Tizi Ouzou province, newspaper reports said.
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Africa North
Qaeda-linked group urges polls boycott in Algeria
2007-05-15
Al Qaeda's North Africa wing has called on Algerians to boycott Thursday's parliamentary elections, which it condemned as a "farce", according to an audio tape aired by Al Jazeera television on Monday.

"This election is just a farce like the other farces that Algeria faces."
Some observers in Algeria expect the rebels, who claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings that killed 33 people in Algiers on April 11, to try to disrupt the polling on May 17. "This election is just a farce like the other farces that Algeria faces," said the speaker on the tape identified by Al Jazeera as Abu Musab Abdul-Wadud, a leader of al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb. "If you participate in these elections, you would be taking part in a great abomination together with apostates," the speaker said. "I ask of you nothing but a boycott and refusal to vote."

"If you participate in these elections, you would be taking part in a great abomination together with apostates."
Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, vowed last week to carry out more suicide bombings and urged Muslims to join its ranks as suicide bombers. The election for the 389-seat assembly has faced apathy among many Algerians who see the body as subservient to the country's powerful executive.
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Africa North
Morocco breaks up Al Qaeda recruiting gang
2007-05-07
Moroccan officials dismantled a terrorist network that was recruiting fighters for Al Qaeda’s North African branch and arrested 20 people in several towns across the country, state news agency MAP reported on Sunday. The gang was involved in sending volunteers to training camps run by the Algerian-based Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, MAP said, citing police sources. Morocco, a staunch US ally, says it has broken up more than 50 militant Islamist cells, some linked to Al Qaeda, and arrested more than 3,000 people since the suicide bombings which occurred in Casablanca in 2003.
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Africa North
Morocco vows "no respite" on terror after blast
2007-03-13
Morocco pledged to wage war against terrorism "without respite" on Monday after a suspected suicide bomber was blown up in a Casablanca Internet cafe during a tussle with the owner of the premises. Police were questioning a man who was found to be carrying explosives as he tried to flee the scene in Sidi Moumen, a slum district of the north African kingdom's commercial capital. "This is an incentive to pursue the war on terrorism without respite," Communication Minister Nabil Benabdallah told Reuters, adding the incident was "in the framework of horrendous terrorist acts in Morocco and other Maghreb countries".

Governments in North Africa fear violence may spill over from Algeria after the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat renamed itself Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb with the aim of fusing similar Islamist groups together.

Security officials said on Sunday night a man with explosives hidden under his clothes had a dispute with the cafe proprietor and the blast occurred as the two men came to blows. The man armed with explosives was killed and four people were wounded in the blast. The official MAP news agency named the dead man as Abdelfattah Raydi, an unemployed 23-year-old who was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2003 under anti-terrorism legislation. He was granted a royal pardon in 2005, the agency said without elaborating.
That worked well.
Another man at the scene who tried to run away was arrested and also found to have explosives, security sources said. The man, one of the four wounded, was under interrogation.
"Mahmoud! The Number 7, please!"
"Yes, Effendi!"
"Ahhh! The smell of fine Moroccan leather!"
"I had the brass studs polished yesterday, Effendi!"
The blast revived memories in the normally peaceful kingdom of a 2003 attack in Morocco's commercial capital that killed 32 people and the 13 suicide bombers who carried it out. "It was preparation for an attack," said Mohamed Dariff, Professor of Political Science at University Hassan II in Mohamadia, a specialist in Islamist insurgent groups. "We see that the strategy of Islamic groups in Morocco hasn't changed -- it's the same as it was in May 2003, of men setting off explosives."
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Africa North
Morocco adds more names to al Qaeda wanted list
2007-02-21
Moroccan police widened a search for suspected Islamic extremists on Tuesday, calling on citizens to help reveal the hiding places of two militants they say have links to al Qaeda, state news agency MAP reported. The appeal was the second of its kind in five days and came after a meeting of top officials last week to discuss tougher security measures amid growing fears of al Qaeda attacks. "The Moroccan authorities ask all people with information or who know where these wanted men may be hiding to immediately inform the administrative authorities or security services," MAP cited the police as saying.

The wanted suspects are Hmam Bilal and Bel Hachmi Mohamed Rida who are accused of having ties with groups including the Algeria-based al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, MAP cited police sources as saying.

Violence in Tunisia and Algeria and arrests in Morocco in the past months have raised fears that militant groups across the Maghreb are beginning to coordinate their activities. Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has stepped up a campaign of bombings and ambushes in Algeria. It claimed responsibility for seven bomb attacks in Algeria last week in which at least six people were killed.

Security sources say the Moroccan authorities have intelligence information about an al Qaeda plot to carry out an attack or attacks in the kingdom, but have no specific details.
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Africa North
Morocco hunts two Qaeda suspects amid high alert
2007-02-17
Moroccan security forces urged citizens on Friday to help them hunt two men with suspected al Qaeda links as the country remained on high alert after a string of bomb attacks earlier this week in neighbouring Algeria.

Arabic-language daily al Maghribia, which is close to the government, said authorities had information indicating al Qaeda operatives were attempting to infiltrate via Algeria. Security sources said Moroccan authorities had some intelligence information about a possible al Qaeda attack, but lacked details.

Following a meeting of top security officials, authorities named the two men as Aziz Chaguan and Abdelhali Chairi and said they had suspected links to Algeria's Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb.

The Islamist rebel group, previously known as Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has stepped up a campaign of bombings and ambushes in Algeria in recent months. It claimed responsibility for the seven bombs which exploded almost simultaneously on Tuesday, killing six people east of the capital Algiers. Moroccan authorities last launched a public call for help in rounding up suspects in 2003 after suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca, the kingdom's commercial capital.
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Africa North
GSPC claims responsibility for Algeria attacks
2007-02-15
Algerians woke on Tuesday (February 13th) to find themselves facing a resurgence of bomb attacks, which plagued the country from 1994 to 1997. Seven car bombs targeting police stations exploded simultaneously in the regions of Boumerdès and Tizi Ouzou, situated 50km and 100km east of Algiers.

Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb -- the new name for the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) -- claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to al-Jazeera.

Six people were killed, including two police officers, and 13 were wounded, according to the interior ministry. This is the first time since the dissolution of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) that bomb attacks have been conducted simultaneously so close to the capital. According to the ministry, the deadliest was the attack in Si Mustafa, Boumerdes province, where a car bomb killed four people.

The attacks were carried out simultaneously at 4:30am Algiers time, using remote-controlled car bombs.

"Everyone was asleep ... I heard a loud explosion, and the windows in the house shook," says Rachid Taourirt, who lives in the town of Tizi Ouzou, 11km from the attack on the police station in Draâ Ben Khedda. Cherif Kahdmi, a resident of the nearby town of Mekla described the police station as "completely destroyed".

"Due to lack of elements and difficulty of recruitment, and especially the vigileance of security services in large urban centres, the GSPC had no choice but to obey Ayman al-Zawahiri who legitimizes collective massacres -- car bomb attacks that cause more damage," the paper reported.
Algeria daily Liberte Algerie said on Wednesday that the GSPC seems to have abandoned its confrontational strategy, opting for the "less risky" remotely detonated car bombs. "Due to lack of elements and difficulty of recruitment, and especially the vigileance of security services in large urban centres, the GSPC had no choice but to obey Ayman al-Zawahiri who legitimizes collective massacres -- car bomb attacks that cause more damage," the paper reported.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa denounced the attacks and voiced the league's solidarity with Algeria in its anti-terror fight.

The attacks come a week after statements from Interior Ministry Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni and Deputy Minister for Local Communities Dahou Ould Kablia, of possible risks posed by the GSPC. According to Zerhouni, the group’s decision to take a new name "changes nothing in reality. We are still dealing with the same men, and we shall fight them to the end." Ould Kablia, downplayed the threat posed by the Salafist Group, judging it to be "on its way to being stamped out."
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Africa North
Qaeda unit claims Algeria blasts
2007-02-13
DUBAI (Reuters) - The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the deadly bombings in Algeria on Tuesday, al Jazeera television said. It said the group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, made the claim in a telephone call to its office in the Moroccan capital Rabat. "Qaeda's organisation in the Islamic states of Maghreb adopted the bombings in Algeria," Jazeera said.

Seven bombs went off almost simultaneously in Algeria on Tuesday, killing six people east of the capital Algiers.

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