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Africa Horn

Bouteflika urges militants to lay down their arms

2009-03-29

Algeria's president mingled with crowds of potential voters as he campaigned on Friday for re-election in the restive Kabylie region of Algeria, a hotbed of terrorists and a stronghold of the leftist opposition. They prob'ly came out to admire his comb-over. Hundreds of police, sharpshooters and armoured vehicles were on hand in Tizi Ouzou, the region's main city, as Abdul Aziz Bouteflika waded through crowds of supporters. The 72-year-old leader was greeted by women's traditional cries of acclaim "Oh Gawd! Oh Gawd! Oh Gawd! Oh Gawd! Oh Gawd! Oh Gawd! Oh Gawd!... Y-E-E-E-E-SSS!" and celebratory gunshots by tribesmen from the Kabylie ethnic minority. In the days before Bouteflika's visit, Al Qaida-linked militants carried out two deadly attacks in the region, officials said Militants killed a lieutenant colonel on Thursday, and an attempt by militants to storm a police station south of Tizi Ouzou on Tuesday, killed one person and injured three, local officials and Algerian media said. Bouteflika vowed that violence would not deter his National Reconciliation programme, aimed at healing the wounds from a decade-long civil war that killed up to 200,000 people in the 1990s. In a speech to the crowds, he appealed to terrorists to lay down their arms and said, "we have no hatred or bitterness against you and you can rejoin the national community at any time." The reconciliation programme, passed by referendum in 2005, offers amnesty to militants who renounce violence. Bouteflika, who has made reconciliation and national unity the cornerstones of his presidency, insisted the Kabylie region must adhere to his programme. Because of its steep mountains and deep forests, and the Kabylie population's traditional hostility to the Arab-dominated state, many militants from Al Qaida in Islamic North Africa are based in the region. Bouteflika is widely seen as assured of winning a third term in the April 9 race. He has also made high voter turnout a key goal, and his team is aiming for a voter participation of more than 60 per cent.

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Africa Subsaharan

Dakar Rally canceled after Terror Threat

2008-01-04

The annual Dakar Rally was canceled Friday on the eve of the race across the Sahara Desert because of terror threats and the recent killings of a French family in Mauritania blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. It was the first time in the 30-year history of the automobile, motorbike and truck race that it has been called off. In a statement, organizers blamed international tensions, the tourists' Dec. 24 murders and "threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organizations." The race's central appeal — its course through African deserts, scrubland and savannas — is also its weak point, making it difficult to protect thousands of people as they cross remote regions. "No other decision but the cancellation of the sporting event could be taken," organizers said. France, where the race organizers are based, had urged the rally to avoid Mauritania after the four family members were killed in an attack blamed on a terror cell that uses the Mauritanian desert as a hideout. Officials say the cell is linked to the Algeria-based al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, which has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks, including the Dec. 11 twin suicide bombings at U.N. offices and a government building in Algiers, which killed at least 37 people. Only the father of the slain family survived the Dec. 24 attack, in a town 150 miles east of the Mauritanian capital as the family picnicked on the side of a road. That attack was followed up be another four days later, when three Mauritanian soldiers manning a checkpoint were killed. Mauritania is a largely peaceful Islamic republic that has been rocked by the back-to-back attacks. Authorities have blamed a terror "sleeper cell" linked to the Algeria-based al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa for the murders of the family. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility for the killing of the soldiers. Mauritania's police force has been tracking the killers of the four tourists, recovering the car they used and arresting a woman who allegedly helped them secure a boat to cross into neighboring Senegal. Full report at link.

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Africa North

Algeria Car Bomb Kills 4 Police Officers

2008-01-02

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - A car bomb exploded near a police station in a town east of the Algerian capital Wednesday, killing at least four officers and ripping off the building's facade, witnesses said. The blast followed twin suicide bombings on Dec. 11 at U.N. offices and a government building that killed at least 37 people in the capital of Algiers. A journalist and another resident in the city of Naciria said the car sped toward the police station and exploded. The Interior Ministry said the attack killed at least four police officers and injured 20, including eight police officers. The ministry provided no details other than to say that the bombing was near the police station in the town about 45 miles east of Algiers. The explosion tore off the front of the police station and damaged neighboring buildings. Security forces cordoned off the rubble-strewn ruins. The suicide bombings in December and others in April were claimed by al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, which emerged out of an alliance between Osama bin Laden's international terror network and a local Islamic insurgency movement known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. Security forces have been on maximum alert since earlier this week, after three trucks were stolen in the Algiers region, the newspaper Liberte reported Wednesday. The vehicles included a fuel tanker, and officials fear they might be used in suicide attacks, the report said. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa has increasingly used vehicles packed with explosives to deliver its strikes. In July, a suicide bomber blew up a truck inside a military barracks southeast of Algiers, killing 10 soldiers. Two months later, at least 28 people died after an explosives-packed vehicle rammed into a coast guard barracks in the northern town of Dellys. Meanwhile Wednesday, Le Soir newspaper said security forces have detained the mastermind behind the April 11 attacks that hit the Algerian prime minister's office and a police station, killing 33 people. Police picked up the 28-year-old suspect at his Algiers home overnight Saturday, the report cited an unidentified security official as saying. The official said the suspect chose the targets, recruited the suicide bombers and bought the substances used to make the explosives. It was not clear whether he was implicated in any other attacks, the newspaper said. Officials with national security forces declined to comment on the report.

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Europe

EU anti-terror chief: al-Qaida still greatest threat to Europe

2007-11-06

The European Union's new anti-terror coordinator said more attacks by Islamic extremists or their sympathizers were "probable" inside the union and warned of the threat posed by an al-Qaida-affiliated group in North Africa. Gilles de Kerchove, appointed the EU's anti-terror chief in September, called on the EU to increase border protection to combat new dangers in the area, including the spreading of Islamist violence in countries like Algeria, where responsibility for recent bombings has been claimed by the Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa group. "The proximity to Europe means we have to beef up our border protection," de Kerchove said.

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Africa North

Suicide bomber in deadly Algeria attack was 15 years old

2007-09-11

The suicide bomber who rammed a delivery truck packed with explosives into a coast guard barracks in northern Algeria over the weekend, killing 30 officers, was 15 years old, El Watan newspaper said Monday. The report identified the attacker as Nabil Belkacemi, a student from the Algerian capital, Algiers. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack on the barracks in the northern coastal town of Dellys, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Algiers. In a statement posted on an Islamic Web site, the group said it was also behind a separate blast Thursday that killed at least 22 in eastern Algeria.

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Africa North

6 men linked to Al-Qaida indicted in Mauritania

2007-04-12

A Mauritanian court indicted six men on terror charges Wednesday. The six are thought to belong to a local terror cell linked to Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, the group that earlier claimed responsibility for the bombings that ripped through the prime minister's office and a police station in Algiers, killing at least 24 and wounding hundreds. Five of the six were charged with "belonging to a terrorist organization whose aim is undermining national security," said Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Talhata, the country's chief prosecutor. Talhata said authorities had been pursuing the men for three months when they arrested them two weeks ago in Nouakchott. They were caught with a cache of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

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Europe

Bruguiere says radical Islamist threat in Europe is increasing

2007-02-15

The risk of terror attacks in Europe is high and is increasing, France's leading anti-terrorism judge said, warning that a recent alliance between al-Qaida and a North African terrorist group poses a grave threat. The Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials GSPC, staged seven nearly simultaneous attacks in Algeria on Tuesday, targeting police in several towns east of Algiers, killing six and injuring around 30, according to officials, police and hospital staff. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, the new name for the GSPC, claimed responsibility for the strikes. "The GSPC wants to carry out attacks in Europe, especially in France, Italy and Spain, and destabilize North Africa," Jean-Louis Bruguiere told The Associated Press on Tuesday night in New York. French counterterrorism police arrested 11 suspects as part of efforts aimed at dismantling an alleged al-Qaida-linked recruiting network to send radical Islamic fighters to Iraq, police officials said Wednesday. Nine suspects were detained in and near the southern city of Toulouse before dawn Wednesday, following the arrest of two others late Tuesday at Paris' Orly airport, police said. The two had been sent home by Syrian authorities, investigators said. Bruguiere said the threat to Europe is "pretty high." France rates four on a scale of one to five, he said He linked the increased threat level to the U.S.-led war on Iraq. "Actors of jihad have become radicalized and have tried to demonstrate that their means have not been diminished since September 11," he said. As Western countries have developed new measures to fight attacks by Islamic radicals, the terrorists have also come up with a strategy to fight globally, he said. Despite the growing danger of further Islamist strikes in Europe, there have also been successes in anti-terrorism efforts. An attempted attack by GSPC in France was foiled by domestic counterterrorism groups, and the French government is cautiously monitoring the group's activities, Bruguiere said. European countries are working closely together to prevent further attacks and international cooperation. He said that cooperation with the United States in particular has improved significantly in recent years.

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Africa North

Wave of bomb attacks kills 6 in Algeria

2007-02-14

A group linked to al-Qaida staged seven near-simultaneous bomb attacks Tuesday, targeting police in several towns east of Algiers and killing six people, officials said. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa — the new name for the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French acronym GSPC — claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to the Al-Jazeera television network and in a statement on the Internet. The seven bombings, some of them car explosions, hit the Kabylie region east of Algiers between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. Tuesday, the state news agency said. The apparently coordinated attacks surprised the North African country, which has steadily emerged from an Islamic insurgency that killed more than 150,000 people in the 1990s. While scattered violence by the GSPC continues, such carefully planned strikes are rare in today's Algeria, an ally in the U.S.-led war against terrorism. The attackers' statement claimed casualties were much higher and accused the Interior Ministry of playing down the impact. The statement said the attacks targeted six police stations and "ended successfully." The bombings quashed Algerian authorities' claims that the GSPC lately had grown weaker, said Mohamed Darif, a terrorism expert at Morocco's Mohammedia University. "This is to show that (the GSPC) is still capable of launching attacks in the heart of Algeria," Darif said. The Interior Ministry said six people were killed, including two police officers, according to the state news agency. The ministry also reported 13 wounded, and said 10 of them were police. Police and hospital staff put the number of wounded at 30. "I was wakened by a terrific crash that shattered the windows of my house," said Yassine, who lives near a police station that was targeted in the town of Boumerdes. He asked that his last name not be published because he feared for his safety. "I went outside and found the facade of the police station in ruins, with the carcass of a bombed car next to it." The attack was not the first in Boumerdes. "The Islamists have always used this area as a hideout," Yassine said. "Lately we thought things had calmed down." Although down to a few hundred members, the GSPC carries out regular bomb attacks in Algeria and raises funds in Europe for al-Qaida's operations in Iraq. In December, the group staged a bomb attack on buses carrying foreign workers of an affiliate of U.S. energy services giant Halliburton, killing an Algerian bus driver and wounding nine people.

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