Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Africa North

French army says senior Al-Qaeda leader killed in Mali

2022-03-08

[AlAhram] La Belle France's army said Monday that its anti-jihadist force in Mali had killed Yahia Djouadi, a "big shot" of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) responsible for finance and logistics.

La Belle France's army said Monday that its anti-jihadist force in Mali had killed Yahia Djouadi, a "big shot" of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) responsible for finance and logistics.

Djouadi, an Algerian also known as Abu Ammar al-Jazairi, was killed overnight from February 25 to 26 around (160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Timbuktu in central Mali, the army said in a statement.

His death "once again weakens al-Qaeda's governance" in Mali, it added, calling him "a major link in northern Mali and especially the Timbuktu area" to the Qaeda-aligned GSIM group.

A former "emir" of al-Qaeda's Libyan operations, Djouadi fled to Mali in 2019 and settled in the Timbuktu region, helping organise the group and coordinating supplies, financing and logistics, the army said.

It added that he was killed by ground forces supported by a Tiger attack helicopter and two drones.

La Belle France is preparing to redeploy some 2,400 troops away from Mali to other countries in the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
facing cross-border jihadist insurgencies, after falling out with the military junta in Bamako.

While the pullout is set to stretch over six months, the army said that "operations continue against armed terrorist groups, especially against the top leaders of al-Qaeda, GSIM and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara

...he succulent fruit of the union of splinter factions from Mokhtar Bekmokhtar'sal-Mourabitunes and MUJAO. Once the dust had settled and the smell of gunsmoke had dissipated, they became the Islamic State in Mali, then adopted their present clever name. They are headed by Adnan Abu Walid Saharaoui. It operates along the borders of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
, Niger, and Mali...
(ISGS) group."

French forces first intervened in Mali in 2013, but disputes between Gay Paree and Bamako since a 2020 coup have prompted the military government to turn to other allies like Russia's Wagner paramilitary group.

Even with international allies on the ground, the Malian state has struggled to reassert control of territory from the jihadist insurgency that began in the country's north in 2012 and has since spread to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

The fighting has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Deutsche Welle adds:

La Belle France has said forces from its Operation Barkhane contingent killed a senior regional al-Qaeda leader in an overnight raid near Timbuktu last week. Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch clutched at his other leg......
two UN peacekeepers have died in an explosive attack.

On Monday, two members of the UN's Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) force were killed in a roadside kaboom when the vehicle they were traveling in hit an improvised bomb.

"This morning, a supply convoy ... struck an improvised bomb north of Mopti," MINUSMA front man Olivier Salgado wrote on Twitter. Four other peacekeepers were maimed in the attack.

The nationalities of those killed and injured in the attack were not immediately released.

FUTURE OF UN PEACEKEEPING MISSION IN DOUBT
Western nations participating in the international mission have said the shifting situation on the ground may in fact compromise the 13,000-strong contingent, the annual mandate of which must be renewed this June. As with the French deployment to Mali, UN troops have been on the ground in the Sahel since 2013 in an effort to halt the advance of Islamic fighters who began seriously challenging governments and civilians in the region in 2012.

MINUSMA troops have been heavily dependent upon French air and medical support throughout their mission. La Belle France's withdrawal from Mali, as well as the recent coup, has caused contributing nations such as Germany, Sweden and Denmark to rethink their commitment to it.

Link

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.

Link

Africa North

AQIM emir believed dead in ANP airstrike

2012-02-20

I'm keeping the official Rantburg ululator near at hand, awaiting official confirmation.

[Magharebia] Algerian experts believe one of three gunnies killed in a recent Algerian army ~~Arclight~~ airstrike near the Malian border to be a senior member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), based on DNA evidence, El Khabar reported. Samples are being compared with DNA from family members of Yahia Djouadi, alias Abou Ammar, known also as Abu Al Hammam, and of his military commander Mohamed Ghedir, alias Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, among other AQIM leaders.

The three bad boyz were potted just hours after the ANP thwarted the Tinzaouatine terrorist attack, killing seven other terrorists.

Link

Africa North

AQIM replaces Sahara emir

2012-01-30

[Magharebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) designated Algerian terrorist Nabil Makhloufi, alias Nabil Abu Alqama, as the new head of the Sahara emirate.

The "appointment" of Abu Alqama, who replaced Yahia Djouadi, "took place during the latter half of November 2011", ANI reported last month.

"He was also assigned the task of leading all the organization's battalions and brigades in the Sahara, or what is known as the ninth region of the organization, along with keeping the leaders of those battalions and brigades in their posts," the Mauritanian newspaper added.

The move came on the heels of a fierce rivalry and internecine disputes within the terrorist group.

Mohamed Ghadir (aka Abdelhamid Abou Zeid), the "Tariq ibn Ziyad" katibat boss, and Khaled Abou El Abass (aka Mokhtar Belmokhtar, or "Laaouar"), who runs the El Moulethemine battalion, also vied for control of AQIM's Sahara emirate.

The leadership change has far-reaching implications for countries in the region. Those who craft security policies must take it into consideration, according to analyst Bashir Ould Babaneh.

The move "is related to trying to overcome the conflicts of Sahara emirs and the leaders of their battalions and brigades, as well as being an attempt to inject new blood into the emirate, which has become the most important emirate of the organization and the most vital and active", commented Mohamed Mahmoud Aboulmaaly, who specialises in terrorist groups in the Sahel.

The change came in response to "increasing differences between former emir Yahia Djouadi and some emirs of the other brigades and battalions", he added.

"Yahia Djouadi did not succeed, according to the organization, in activating and developing Sahara Emirate strategies," Aboulmaaly said, "resulting in a slowdown in the latter's activity in 2007, 2008 and 2009."

Link

Africa North

Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, a harsh and violent leader within AQIM

2010-09-24

[Ennahar] Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, who holds the French hostages kidnapped in Niger, is one of the most radical and violent leaders of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who gradually extended his field of action in the Sahara, according to experts.

"For two years," said French researcher Jean-Pierre Filiu, author of "Nine Lives of Al Qaeda," Abu Zeid has dramatically expanded his field of action, with great mobility, kidnapping of tourists in southern Tunisia, opening the front of Niger which did not exist before."

Born 44 years ago in the small town of Touggourt (600 km south of Algiers), he joined at the age of 24 the local committee of the Islamic Front (FIS) and then switches to the armed activity in late 1991.

"According to his family," says Algerian journalist Mohamed Mokeddem, who runs the daily Ennahar, "he went into hiding shortly after the attack on the barracks of Guemmar (November 1991) He was accompanied by his brother Bachir, who was killed by the Algerian army in 1995. Until the end of year 90, he operates in the bush of Batna (eastern Algeria).

In 2003, during the spectacular kidnapping of 32 European tourists in what was still known the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb...
(GSPC) in southern Algeria, Abu Zeid appears for the first time as an Assistant Chief of the kidnappers, Abderazak the Para.

"The first pictures of him were taken by those hostage who have published them in the German media after their release," adds Mohamed Mokeddem, specialist of Algerian jihadist networks.

These images show a small man, almost frail, with a short beard. In an amateur shot film by a member of AQIM in 2007, AFP was able to view in Mauritania, Abu Zeid appears briefly, looking somber and disapproving, alongside jihadists who play in the water around a their Toyotas stuck in a river.

In 2006, when a quarrel broke out between Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the principal leaders of the GSPC in the Sahara and the organization's supreme leader, Abdelmalek Droukdal, installed in northern Algeria, Abu Zeid aligned the direction of movement.

As an assistant of the "Emir of the Sahara" Yahia Djouadi, he commanded Katiba (group of jihadists) Tariq ibn Ziyad, some 200 men (mainly Algerian, Mauritanian and Malian) well equipped and highly mobile, based mainly in northern Mali.

"He has a direct connexion with al Qaeda, including with the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, known for anti-French virulence," said Jean-Pierre Filiu.

"This abduction will last, but what is worrying is that there were two cases of kidnappings in which it has ended badly," he recalls, referring to the English tourist Edwin Dyer, killed in June 2009 and the French Germaneau Michel, who died this summer, both captured by Abu Zeid and his men.

A concern shared by Louis Caprioli, former assistant director in charge of the fight against terrorism to the DST (French intelligence).

"Abu Zeid will make every effort to mediate the matter. He will set ultimatums. He builds on the strategy of terror (of the former head of Al Qaeda in Iraq) Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, and this is very worrying."

Shortly after the announcement of the death of Edwin Dyer, a Malian official who had participated in the negotiations told AFP: "Abu Zeid is a violent and brutal man. he is very hard in negotiations. He has criticized us for working for whites, who for him are infidels ".

Link

Africa North

Ennahar unveils Droukdal's new organisation plan

2010-08-16

[Ennahar] The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) has recently undertaken a reorganization of its structures, after losing a significant number of ~~number threes~~ rulers who have either surrendered ~~like Nancy-boys~~ to authorities or were ~~hunted down like the dogs they were~~ killed by security forces in different operations in the fight against terrorism.

Information were provided by terrorists who ~~got their mitts in the air~~ surrendered in recent weeks, on the organizational level of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, by which a new structure called "El djound", reducing Katibat (groupe) into a single tool implementing the second stage, after being a center of decision making within the terrorist organization before.
Cheez, that reads like a Office of Management and Budget report ...
Most of those repentants, who surrendered to authorities or those killed in anti-terrorism operations, were emirs (leaders). The organization has decided to reduce the Katibat into a second plan group in terms of importance within its structures, while they played a leading role since its inception.

For this, a new structure called "El Djound," a new organizational framework gathering two or more Katibat in order to limit the number of terrorists fleeing the organization, on the one hand, and secondly to reduce the importance of elements who repent or are killed by security forces, particularly after the experience of Katibat al Ansar, which was manhandled by security services for several years until the organisation decides to dissolve it completely.

In the central regions, stronghold of the terrorist organization and a center of activity most important since its inception in 1999, the organization decided to integrate the various Katibat and gather them into three main groups, named "El Djound" whose responsibilities will be divided between them to reactivate the terrorist activity.

In the Province of Tizi Ouzou, whose heights are the stronghold of the terrorist organization, both Katibat "Ennour" and "al Ansar" were merged into one group that now bears the name of "Ansar Al Djound" . This new group consists of different Katibat activating in the region.

In the province of Bouira, the different Katibat were merged into a group called "Dound El Itisam" which includes " Katibat El Farouk" and "Katibat El Houda".

In the eastern areas, activating groups on the axis of Jebel Labiod and Umm El Kemakem in the provinces of Tebessa and Khenchela, have been sent south, while in the western regions, the number of cells decreased significantly because of the refusal of the group « Houmat Dawa Salafia " to support the terrorist organization.
Sounds like a liberal-arts university: every few years they centralize all the services, and a few years after that they decentralize all the centralized services ...
The terrorist organization, which is currently based in the Sahel region of Africa, where she was successful in recruiting a large number of militants in Mali and Mauritania, under the leadership of Yahia Djouadi, alias Yahia Abu Ammar, leader of the region of the south. The emir Abu Mosaâb Abdelouadoud has avoided making changes in the structures of this region for fear of the reactions of its emirs.

An important leader of the terrorist organization, who surrendered to security services a year ago, said that the family of Abdelmalek Droukdal, alias Abu Mosaâb Abdelouadoud, has started contacts with the security services to ensure the surrender to authorities of her son so that he can benefit from the provisions of national reconciliation, along with over sixty other elements.

Security services have asked the family of Droukdal that he should give concrete proof of his desire to surrender to the authorities, the sources said, adding that security services gave no importance to the issue before being surprised, a few days ago, by an audio from the emir of the organization which represents the first concrete evidence of his desire to invoke the provisions of reconciliation.

Link

Africa North

Algeria: Mokhtar ŽresumesŽ terrorist activity

2009-04-23

[ADN Kronos] A North African Al-Qaeda leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has resumed his armed struggle in Algeria after two years of inactivity, security officials said on Tuesday, quoted by Algerian daily el-Khabar.

Belmokhtar, also known as Khaled Abu Al-Abbas, is considered is considered one of the key leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and one of the most wanted terrorists in the Sahara desert region.

Authorities said he marked his comeback by kidnapping Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler and his assistant, Louis Guay, on their way to a United Nations mission in Niger last December.

He has also been implicated in the kidnapping of four tourists from Britain, Switzerland and Germany.

Belmokhtar (photo) reportedly suspended his terrorist activities in late 2006 because of differences between him, as leader of the so-called Mulatahamoun faction and militant leader Abdel Hamid Abu Zaid of the Tarik Ibn Ziyad group.

There was also a rift between Belmokhtar and Abdel Malik Droukedel, the current leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), one of the main components of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

However, Algerian media reports said Droukedel sent a representative and military advisor Yahia Djouadi, alias Yahoia Abu Amar, to reconcile the parties in 2007.

Belmokhtar is wanted by the international police organisation, Interpol, and is the subject of sanctions imposed against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda by United Nations resolution 1267 which includes an asset freeze, a travel ban and an arms embargo.

Fowler, UN special envoy to Niger, and Guay, deputy director of the Sudan task force in Ottawa, and their Niger-based driver were kidnapped on 14 December 2008 about 45 kilometres northwest of Niamey.

While the militant Front des Forces de Redressement initially claimed that its members had kidnapped Fowler and three others, a spokesman for the group later denied the claim.

In January four tourists, a Swiss couple, a German woman in her 70s and a Briton, were seized in the border zone between Mali and Niger as they were returning from a Tuareg cultural festival.

The North African branch of Al-Qaeda has claimed the kidnappings in an audio tape broadcast by the Arabic channel Al-Jazeera.

Link

Africa North

Mali, Niger nomadic tribes join fight against al-Qaeda

2009-03-04

Three Arab nomad and Touareg tribes in northern Mali and Niger agreed to support government efforts against al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, El Khabar reported on Tuesday (March 3rd). Tribal leaders will reportedly fight al-Qaeda emirs Abdelhamid Abouzaid and Yahia Djouadi if terrorists fail to release two kidnapped Canadian diplomats and four European tourists. A Malian military officer disclosed Monday that a Mauritanian citizen alleged to be one of the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for abducting the 6 foreigners was arrested last week, Echorouk reported.

Link

Africa North

US freezes assets of 4 in Algerian branch of Al-Qaeda

2008-07-18

US authorities slapped sanctions Thursday on four suspected leaders of an Algerian branch of Al-Qaeda, saying the group had carried out "numerous attacks" in Algeria.

The US Treasury designated the four leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who had been were added to a United Nations list of people linked to Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Those named included Salah Gasmi, identified as the head of the group's information committee; Yahia Djouadi, based in northern Mali and and leader of a cell that includes southern Algeria; Ahmed Deghdegh, identified as the group's finance chief and designated negotiator; and Abid Hammadou, a deputy leader a battalion based in northern Mali.

According to US officials AQIM carried out three attacks east of Algiers in early June 2008, including a bombing near a train station that killed a French national. The group was also believed to be responsible for the abduction of two Austrian tourists in Tunisia in February. One leader of the group told the New York Times in July that the group was prepared to attack the United States or its interests anywhere in the world.

The US action will freeze any assets of the individuals and prevent any Americans from financial dealings with them. "Algeria has shown remarkable courage in the face of horrifying terrorist attacks against its people," said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). "The four terrorists that we have targeted today are among the most culpable for this violence, as leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb."

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Malian Tuareg rebels: "We will eliminate any Al-Qaeda elements on our areas"

2008-03-06

The military commandant of the Tuareg rebels in Mali, Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Fagaga has threatened eliminating elements belonging to Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, GSPC activating in the Sahara, in case attempting approaching areas being controlled by the rebels adjacent to Algeria's southern borders. Lieutenant Colonel Fagaga told El Khabar in a phone call yesterday, the rebels have managed intercepting movements of GSPC elements, now known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, inside Mali and Kidal region, the nearest Malian province to the Algerian borders.

Hassan Fagaga has further denied the presence in the rebels controlled areas of any elements belonging to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb since Yahia Djouadi, alias Yahia Abu Amar, has succeeded Mokhtar Belmokhtar as the Emir of the ninth region a year ago.

Mokhtar was pushed aside because he didn't want to be an al-Qaeda, reportedly. When last heard from he was in negotiations for amnesty from the government, which would mean his former comrades were trying to kill him.

He further made allusion to armed clashes took place with Belmokhtar fellows two years ago as being the last time Al-Qaeda elements had attempted penetrating to areas controlled by the rebels.

The Tuaregs are a touchy lot. They live in the Sahara, so it's hard to get more austere than they are, so they're not real impressed by Salafism.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Fagaga has not denied the presence of GSPC elements on the Malian territories, saying: we do acquire information disclosing the infiltration of some of them to villages near Kidal region in the north. Fagaga has further reiterated the will of his Movement continuing chasing off Al-Qaeda elements from its areas, saying we have already told them and we still do telling them go away from our territories and do what you want.

"And don't let us catch you sniffin' around our wimmin, dammit!"

Link

Africa North

GSPC finds allies in arms traffickers and narcotic smugglers

2007-12-20

Investigations led by security services on terrorist attacks of last November against Djanet Airport, Southern Algeria have concluded that there is an alliance between drug and arms traffickers on the one hand, and elements from Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat GSPC which claimed responsibility of the airport attack. GSPC said the attack mastermind is the new Emir of the southern region Yahia Djouadi, alias Yahia Abu Amar.

Sixteen terrorists took part in the Djanet airport terrorist attack which targeted a military aircraft parked there, sources close to investigations mentioned, adding that those terrorists moved to the spot on 2 Toyota Station 4x4 cars. The same sources told El Khabar that investigations affirmed that the aforementioned terrorists belongs to smuggling groups activating in the Sahara, pointing out that most of them withdrawn to northern Niger.

Furthermore, Djanet airport attack came to confirm the strong alliance between GSPC and drug, cigarettes and arms traffickers as well as illegal migration networks, said the same sources, adding that a deal has been made between them stating that the track of the traffickers to be secured by GSPC, in exchange this latter would benefit from important financing source as well as establishing contacts with armed groups fighting against regimes in Sahel countries mostly in Niger and Chad.

Link

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