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Africa North

AQIM replaces dead emirs

2013-09-25

[MAGHAREBIA] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) appointed a Mauritanian and an Algerian to replace its slain chiefs, ANI reported on Monday (September 23rd), citing a source from northern Mali. Algerian national Said Abou Moughatil replaces Abdelhamid Abou Zeid as head of the Tariq Ibn Ziyad katibat. As field commander of the terror group's Sahara emirate, Abou Zeid (real name Mohamed Ghadir) was responsible for beheading British hostage Edwin Dyer in 2009 and 78-year-old Frenchie Michel Germaneau in 2010. A Mauritanian citizen known as Abderrahmane (alias "Talha") takes over the Al Vourghan brigade. He replaces Mohamed Lemine Ould Hassen (also known as Abdallah Al Chinguetti), who was killed during the military intervention in Mali. "Talha" reportedly joined AQIM in 2006. He was part of the group that controlled Timbuktu last year before being ousted by the French and African forces.

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Africa North

Mokhtar turns to propaganda to boost image

2013-09-04

[MAGHAREBIA] As part of a struggle to improve his name since losing his al-Qaeda command, terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar just released a "greatest hits" video of his freelance work in Mali, Algeria and Niger. How cute! Only, isn't that the kind of thing that shows up on late night teevee on that other channel after our hero has been reduced to the not-main stage in Las Vegas for a decade or several? The video sent Sunday (September 1st) to Mauritanian daily ANI shows members of Belmokhtar's "Signed in Blood Brigade" and El Moulethemoune katibat ("Brigade of the Veiled Ones") training for Sahel operations. Do they dive through flaming hoops? That's awfully popular at the Hamas summer camps... or perhaps rappel down buildings like the Iranian Women's Corp in full and flowing veils? The 51-minute video marks the first time that Belmokhtar (aka Khaled Abou El Abbès, or "Laaouar") has been seen since the president of Chad reported him as killed in northern Mali. 'E's not dead yet, 'e's just restin'... On the new video, Belmokhtar is shown giving instructions for the twin suicide boom-mobileings at a military camp in Agadez and a uranium mine in Arlit. The Niger attacks killed at least 20 people. The MUJAO and al-Mua'qi'oon Biddam -- Laaouar's group -- grabbed credit for the Niger violence, saying the actions were to avenge the February killing of Al-Qaeda brigade commander terrorist Abdelhamid Abou Zeid by international forces in Mali. Laaouar appears on the tape training fighters for the Niger attacks, dubbed "Sheikh Abdelhamid Abou Zeid's conquest". The video includes photos of Abou Zeid with Belmokhtar, to emphasise their accord. Going at it alone has not proven successful for the one-eyed terrorist. The ousted al-Qaeda brigade leader last month joined forces with Mali-based terror group Movement of Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) to create the "Mourabitounes". Seriously? Over here, we only give names like that to Sixties girl bands. Still, Pashtun warriors love their cosmetics, so who are we to judge? He publicized the merger by including clips of his fighters as well as those of the MUJAO. The video shows training and preparations for the 2013 siege at Algeria's In Amenas gas plant, which left dozens of civilian hostages dead. The January attack was a joint operation by the MUJAO and Laaouar's katibat. The tape also features clips of the gunnies in action in northern Mali last year. Laaouar's "Brigade of the Veiled Ones" and their MUJAO allies are seen engaged in bloody festivities in Gao against the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). Didn't all that fighting get them driven into the desert? For many observers, however, Belmokhtar's video was a failure. "This latest media production is an attempt by this group to show that it still has the strength and the gear to continue the fight in the Sahel," filmmaker Zine El Abidine Ould Bukhari told Magharebia. "It is nothing more than a propaganda movie," he added. "This display of military equipment and mental readiness of terrorist elements did not bear fruit in the real field of confrontation, which means that it is mainly promotional material and nothing more." This is where we point and laugh. Furthermore, young people are becoming more aware about terror recruiting efforts, so multimedia and propaganda tapes "no longer have the same magnitude of influence on them,", he said. According to Sahara Media Editor Bashir Ould Babana, Belmokhtar was weakened and his forces divided. "Therefore Laaouar is seeking to reunite the remaining pieces and trying to rebuild an organization through publicity campaigns and buying weapons," Babana said. To that end, the terrorist is now in Libya, Mosaique FM reported on Friday. "Laaouar, who has a network of positive relations with some of the leaders of terrorist organizations in Libya, was accompanied on his trip by Iyad Ag Ghaly, leader of Ansar al-Din," the Tunisian radio station reported. Laaouar is in Libya looking for weapons, unnamed security sources reportedly told the radio station, in order to conduct terrorist attacks in Tunisia and Algeria.

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Terror Networks

Al-Qaida Group Confirms Death Of Abou Zeid

2013-06-17

[Jpost] Al-Qaeda's North African wing (AQIM) on Sunday confirmed the death of two of its senior commanders in Mali earlier this year, veteran jihadist Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and brigade commander Abdallah Al Chinguetti, Mauritania's ANI news agency said. The death of Abou Zeid, who made millions of dollars kidnapping Western hostages over the past decade, had already been announced "with certainty" by La Belle France in March after festivities with its troops in northern Mali. AQIM, however, had not until now officially confirmed the death of Abou Zeid, the leader of one of its southern brigades and a trusted lieutenant to the group's elusive leader, Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.....

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Africa North

Qaida N. Africa Branch Confirms Death in Mali of Leader Abou Zeid

2013-06-17

[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda's north African branch confirmed that one of its top leaders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, was killed in fighting in Mali, three months after La Belle France announced his death, according to a statement published Sunday. Algerian-born Abou Zeid, considered one of the most radical leaders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed "on the battlefield defending Umma (the Mohammedan community) and sharia law," according to a statement carried by the private Mauritanian news agency ANI. It gave no date for his death. Gay Paree had announced in March that Abou Zeid was killed in fighting with its forces after La Belle France led an offensive to rout al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups from northern Mali. Both La Belle France and Chad, whose troops were also involved in the offensive, said the 46-year-old bully boy was killed at the end of February. "It is the first time that an AQIM statement has officially referred to the death of Abou Zeid," said ANI director Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Abou al-Maali, a specialist on the Islamist group. In March however, Algerian television said that al-Qaeda had named a replacement for Abou Zeid, Algerian national Djamel Okacha. Abou Zeid had a reputation as a severe, aloof character with an unflinching capacity for violence when required. Born in Debdeb in Algeria, close to the border with Libya, Abou Zeid was a young activist in the FIS Islamist movement that won the country's first democratic elections in 1991 but was denied power. He then disappeared underground for most of the 1990s. He re-emerged spectacularly in 2003 as second in command of the GSPC group which kidnapped dozens of foreigners in southern Algeria, and that would later, along with several other organizations, evolve into AQIM. Latterly, Abou Zeid -- whose real name was Mohamed Ghdir according to Algerian court documents -- was considered a deputy to AQIM's "Saharan emir" Yahia Djouadi and commanded a katiba, or battalion, of fighters from Mauritania, Algeria and Mali known as Tareq ibn Ziyad, named after an eighth-century Mohammedan military commander.

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Africa North

Qaida Replaces North Africa Chief Slain in Mali

2013-03-25

[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda has named a replacement for Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, a key commander of its North African branch who was killed in fighting with French-led forces in northern Mali, Algerian TV reported on Sunday. The appointment of Djamel Okacha, a 34-year-old Algerian also known as Yahia Aboul Hammam, still has to be approved by a meeting of the leadership of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the head of Algeria's Ennahar TV, Mohamed Mokkedem, told Agence La Belle France Presse. Okacha is a close aide of AQIM chief Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.... and considered the "real leader" of the group, Mokkedem added. Okacha takes charge of the group's operations in both southern Algeria and northern Mali, where it had seized a vast swathe of territory last year but is now facing a massive counter-offensive by French-led troops. His predecessor Abou Zeid, 46, was credited with having significantly expanded the jihadist group's field of operation to Tunisia and Niger, and for kidnapping activities across the region. La Belle France confirmed on Saturday that Abou Zeid had been killed "during fighting led by the French army in the Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali in late February". "The elimination of one of the main leaders of AQIM marks an important stage in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel," the office of French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... said. Okacha has had a meteoric rise in the group despite not having gone to Afghanistan as other key gun-hung tough guys such as Mokhtar Belmokhtar did. Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist leader who criminal masterminded an assault on an Algerian gas plant that left 37 foreign hostages dead in January, was reportedly killed by Chadian troops in Mali earlier this month. Okacha spent around 18 months in prison in Algeria in the 1990s when the country was mired in Islamist violence. As a member of feared Death Eater organizations the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb... (GPSC), which later became AQMI, he was active in northern Algeria, Mokeddem said. Born in the northern town of Reghaia he was later condemned to death by a court in southern Algeria for acts of terrorism.

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Africa North

France confirms death of Al-Qaida chief Abou Zeid

2013-03-24

[LATIMES] The death of a top Al Qaeda-linked warlord in combat with French-led troops represents a victory in the battle against jihadists who had a stranglehold on northern Mali. But it is far from the defining blow against a wily enemy that can go underground and regroup to renew itself. Even the fearsome Abou Zeid is replaceable. AQIM has already admitted he's titzup. A top commander of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abou Zeid had been in the crosshairs of the French military and their African partners since they moved in to Mali on Jan. 11 to rout cut-throats seen as a threat to northwest Africa and to Europe. An announcement Saturday by the French president's office that Abou Zeid's death in late February has been "definitively confirmed" ends weeks of speculation about his fate. Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, an Algerian thought to be 47, was a pillar of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's southern realm, responsible for the death of at least two European hostages and a leader of the thug takeover of northern Mali, which followed a coup d'etat a year ago. He joined a succession of radical insurgency movements in Algeria starting in the early 1990s and became known for his brutality and involvement in high-profile hostage-taking. President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... 's office said the death of Abou Zeid "marks an important step in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel," the borderlands where the Sahara meets the sub-Saharan jungle, encompassing several nations where cut-throats are on the rise. French officials have maintained for weeks that the Abou Zeid was "probably" dead but waited to conduct DNA tests to verify. The death of a top Al Qaeda-linked warlord in combat with French-led troops represents a victory in the battle against jihadists who had a stranglehold on northern Mali. But it is far from the defining blow against a wily enemy that can go underground and regroup to renew itself. Even the fearsome Abou Zeid is replaceable. A top commander of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abou Zeid had been in the crosshairs of the French military and their African partners since they moved in to Mali on Jan. 11 to rout cut-throats seen as a threat to northwest Africa and to Europe. An announcement Saturday by the French president's office that Abou Zeid's death in late February has been "definitively confirmed" ends weeks of speculation about his fate. Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, an Algerian thought to be 47, was a pillar of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's southern realm, responsible for the death of at least two European hostages and a leader of the thug takeover of northern Mali, which followed a coup d'etat a year ago. He joined a succession of radical insurgency movements in Algeria starting in the early 1990s and became known for his brutality and involvement in high-profile hostage-taking. President Francois Hollande's office said the death of Abou Zeid "marks an important step in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel," the borderlands where the Sahara meets the sub-Saharan jungle, encompassing several nations where cut-throats are on the rise. French officials have maintained for weeks that the Abou Zeid was "probably" dead but waited to conduct DNA tests to verify.

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Africa North

Desperate AQIM breaks silence on Mali

2013-03-21

[MAGHAREBIA] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) issued a new statement on Sunday (March 17th), urging North African youths to fight secularists at home and wage jihad in Mali. The message from the terror network was the first since the international military intervention in northern Mali dislodged the terror network from major cities and reportedly killed several big shots, including Abdelhamid Abou Zeid. "The front of the Islamic Maghreb today is in direst need of the support of the sons of Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, and Mauritania, to thwart the attack of Crusader La Belle France and defeat its agents in the region, and empower the Islamic project and Jihad," AFP quoted the statement as saying. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... the statement addressed moderate political Islamic movements in the Maghreb when it urged them to support jihadists and not leave the stage to the secularists, in a clear reference to liberal political parties as well as leftists and nationalists in North Africa. "Mohammedan youth in Tunisia and elsewhere must not let secularist and other Westernisers run amok. Mohammedan youth should stay and fight the enemy of God and their enemy as well with arguments, proofs and evidence," the terrorist network said. In another paragraph, AQIM said that "jihad" has become easy by virtue of the revolutions that "gave significant room for the call to God. It also gave Mohammedans a full scope to practice their religion, promote virtue and prevent vice. In fact the biggest beneficiaries are the proponents of the Islamic project." According to observers, the new statement stands out for the appeal to moderate Islamist factions that had previously distanced themselves from the cut-thoat salafist groups. Previously, al-Qaeda had described the centrists as hypocrites. This shift in al-Qaeda's discourse with moderate Islamists reflects their dire need for a helping hand, according to analyst Abdul Hamid Ansari. He added that AQIM may have been encouraged by the positions of some Islamist parties that opposed the war against jihadists in northern Mali. However, ars longa, vita brevis... Ansari said that the position of Islamist parties rejecting the war on cut-throats would not be followed by other supporting steps. He said that the statements issued by those parties were only a moral stand. Others however believe that AQIM is seeking to exploit the tense situation prevailing in some Maghreb countries between Islamist movements and their opponents, particularly as is the case in Tunisia between Ennahda and secular groups or in Egypt. "Al-Qaeda resorts to every possible method to sow discord and differences between peoples in order to gain support," analyst Mohamed Ag Hamadou told Magharebia. "It is seeking to plant dissent in the internal front of Maghreb countries in order to win more support." But he added that he did not think the plot would succeed, saying, "Today, Maghreb youth want jobs rather than retreat into a mountain and die for free." Although most Maghreb youths are more concerned with local problems according to the analyst, some may still heed that call, such as the Frenchie Djamel Touiter. He was incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... few weeks ago in northern Mali fighting alongside al-Qaeda. The newspaper Le Gay Pareeien quoted his sister Sonia as saying that her brother's actions were a disgrace. "He has betrayed La Belle France. He has betrayed his family. And he has also betrayed the French public. His actions go against the services that La Belle France gave him. He deserves punishment," his sister said. The newspaper added that the 37-year-old Frenchie of Algerian origin was previously a member of La Belle France's police force and held several other jobs before joining jihadists in northern Mali, leaving behind three children and his ex-wife.

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Africa North

France sees northeast Mali secure by end-March

2013-03-12

[Al Ahram] "We are taking back this territory almost meter by meter. There will doubtless be other violent battles. Three weeks from now, if all goes as planned, we will have covered all of this territory," French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told French media published on Monday. Le Drian said to Le Monde in an interview that while the results of DNA tests were still being awaited, it seemed likely that top al Qaeda leaders in the region had been killed in recent fighting and that it was now a matter of flushing out foot soldiers. His view on the timetable was in line with France's goal to start winding down its eight-week-old military intervention in Mali in April and handing over to African forces. Asked whether that meant the rebels' sanctuary around the Ifoghas mountains would be safe, even if some Islamist militants were still hiding out there, Le Drian said: "Overall security will have been restored in this space. I am not going to tell you that we are going to hunt them down to the last man." Le Drian said on Friday at the end of a brief visit to Mali that French forces were now deep in the Islamists' stronghold in the remote valleys of northern Mali and had uncovered big caches of weapons stockpiled by the al-Qaeda-linked fighters. Chad has said its soldiers killed al Qaeda's two top leaders in the region, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and Mokhtar Belmokhtar. If true, that would be a major coup, but Le Drian cautioned that hundreds of lower level militants had been found in the area. "We have clearly killed leaders and lower-level chiefs. Even if it still needs to be confirmed, it's likely that Abou Zeid is gone. That does not solve everything," he told Le Monde. He said the fact that neighboring countries had shut their borders with Mali made it harder to hunt down fighters, including mercenaries, who had fled abroad.

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Africa North

AQIM brigade chief dead in Aguelhok

2013-03-09

[MAGHAREBIA] The leader of a new al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) brigade was allegedly killed in northern Mali, ANSA reported on Thursday (March 7th). El Kairouani Abu Abdelhamid al-Kidali was reportedly eliminated by French and Chadian forces in Aguelhok, Sahara Media said. The news followed reports of the deaths of al-Qaeda leader Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and his chief rival Mokhtar Belmokhtar. On Wednesday, Ansar al-Din leader Iyad Ag Ghaly was also rumoured dead. On November 28th, AQIM announced the creation of the "Youssef ben Tachfine" brigade, led by al-Kidali. The new brigade is made up mainly of Touaregs.

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Africa North

Al-Qaeda confirms Abou Zeid killed in Mali

2013-03-05

[VANGUARDNGR] Al-Qaeda's branch in northern Africa on Monday confirmed that one of its big shots, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, had been killed in northern Mali, a report said. Zeid was killed as a result of a French bombing raid in the Ifoghas mountains, a member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) who normally writes for jihadist websites told the private Mauritanian news agency Sahara Medias. He denied claims, however, that another Islamist leader in the region, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, had been killed, saying that Belmokhtar "is in the Gao region, waging the fight against he enemy."

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Africa Subsaharan

Abou Zeid killed: Former Al Qaeda leader Abdelhamid Abou Zeid presumed dead (Video)

2013-03-01

As President Barack Obama and his administration wake up to sequester drama, they can revel in some news in the world's fight against terrorism. According to a Mar. 1 Reuters report, one of the most powerful commanders of al Qaeda's north Africa wing (AQIM) Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, a former smuggler turned "jihadist" is dead. Do we have a severed head? If not 48 hour rule applies... Abou Zeid was the chief rival to Mokhtar Belmokhtar for the title of Sheikh of the Burning Sands. Algeria's Ennahar television reported that the former commander was killed in an operation against Islamist fighters in Mali. He was reportedly among 40 militants killed earlier this week near the Algerian border, where French and Chadian troops have been trying to dislodge them. Sounds like the French successfully dislodged Abou's head from his shoulders... Neither French, nor Malian, Algerian or Chadian officials have confirmed Abou Zeid's death, but a French army official confirmed that about 40 Islamists where killed over the last week. According to the New York Times, however, an American official said that the "reports that Mr. Abou Zeid had been killed appeared to be credible and that Washington would view his death as a serious blow to the Al Qaeda wing."

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Africa North

In Amenas attack magnifies Belmokhtar, AQIM rift

2013-02-08

[MAGHAREBIA] The recent siege at Algeria's In Amenas gas complex highlights a long-standing rivalry between jihadist leaders in the Sahara. The terror attack was orchestrated by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran thug with a long trail of blood from Afghanistan to his native Algeria. Belmokhtar, also known as Khaled Abou El Abbas or Laaouar, broke away from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) last fall amid incessant leadership disputes and quarrels over smuggling and ransom payments. Belmokhtar's chief rival for al-Qaeda leadership in the Sahara has long been Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, emir of the Tariq Ibn Ziyad brigade. Mohamed Mokaddem, an author of several books on al-Qaeda, told AFP that Belmokhtar has never accepted the fact that AQIM leader Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.... chose Abou Zeid over him. "To (Belmokhtar), Abou Zeid is just a vulgar smuggler turned jihadist with no legitimacy. He believes Abou Zeid continued trafficking fuel and cars while fighting in the name of Allah and Afghanistan," Mokaddem said. Sahel Isselmou Ould Moustapha, a Mauritanian specialist in Islamist movements, agreed with this view on al-Qaeda infighting. "Belmokhtar considers Abou Zeid an ignoramus, a leader without charisma. He feels mistreated by AQIM because, unlike other jihadist leaders in its history, he comes from southern Algeria, and not the north," Ould Moustapha said. "But with the hostage seizure at In Amenas, he made a grand strike," he added. The assault on the Algerian gas plant was an opportunity for Belmokhtar to reassert himself, analysts told Magharebia. "After the exit of Laaouar from al-Qaeda due to internal problems, he did not find any other path than terrorism," said Sid Ahmed Ould Otafal, a terrorism analyst. "Hence he tried to restore confidence in his character by establishing the 'Signed in Blood' battalion after his previous El Moulethemine battalion became known to be associated with al Qaeda." "Laaouar proved that the organization suffers from a failure to keep its strong elements and reflects some sort of internal conflict among its leaders who are interested in gains and fame only," Ould Otafal added. Analyst Abdul Hamid Ansari said that Belmokhtar was using the Algeria attack to say to his al-Qaeda colleagues that his existence was important in the region and they could not do without him. Since Laaouar failed and all of his cohorts were killed or captured at In Amenas, the game has become open to all, according to Ansari. "The only thing that he has succeeded with in the past is to recruit some young people by brainwashing them," he added. Sid Mohamed Ould Abdel Kader, a Sahel expert and veteran of the 1990s Touareg rebellion, spoke to Magharebia at length about the history of Belmokhtar in northern Mali, his extensive relationship with the population and the approach he used to convince many young people of his jihadist ideology. The terror leader gave young people loans and lent them vehicles to engage in cigarette and drug smuggling, Ould Abdel Kader said. "Later on, he would gather them and lecture them on the importance of jihad and convince them to take up arms," he said.

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