Algeria hit by surge in guerrilla violence

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, Algeria - - A civilian security guard was killed and six police officers were injured in two separate attacks by suspected Islamist militants, officials said Friday.

The security guard, 32, was stabbed to death Friday when he stopped at a road block set up by militants near the village of Timezrit, in the Boumerdes region about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the capital, Algiers.

In a separate incident, a bomb exploded Thursday outside a military barracks in an Algiers suburb, injuring six military officers, officials said.

The homemade explosive, hidden in a bottle of mineral water, was detonated using a mobile phone as the officers left the barracks to attend a prayer service marking day 27 of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

About 20 people have been killed since the start of Ramadan last month in attacks by suspected militants and security forces' anti-terror operations.

The North African nation has been fighting an Islamic insurgency since 1992, when the army canceled nationwide elections to prevent a likely victory by a Muslim fundamentalist party.

An estimated 150,000-200,000 people have died in the violence, which has grown sporadic in recent years.

Security guard killed, 6 officers injured in attacks in Algeria

[Al-khiyal]

While the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) was long thought to have links to al-Qaeda, the recently-declared merger of the two groups has Algeria concerned.

Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released an internet videotape on September 11th indicating that al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden had given his personal approval to the "blessed union" between the Algerian network and al-Qaeda.

"The leadership of al-Qaeda doesn't have a secure base left anywhere else in the world," Liess Boukraa, a terrorism expert in Algiers, told the Washington Post, adding, "So al-Qaeda needs the GSPC at the logistical level. The GSPC needs al-Qaeda at the ideological level."

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika reiterated on September 27th Algeria's determination to continue to fight GSPC elements.

"The abject remnants of terrorism are inescapably bound to disappear. We shall not be happy until we have eradicated it forever as the rule of law becomes established," he declared.

Algerian authorities had been a bit less concerned with the GSPC in recent years, as it was mainly confined to the Kabylian scrublands and its few demonstrations of strength included roadblocks of military convoys.

However, the return of former GSPC leader Hassan Hattab has made the GSPC a more serious threat. The return was announced in an unauthenticated communiqué dated October 7th, which was published by the Algerian state press.

Hattab, who had for some time indicated that he might negotiate with the government, seemed to renounce the national reconciliation policy, which has been a source of hope for many Algerians recovering from the wounds of a decade-long civil war in which an estimated 150,000 civilians were killed.

In the communiqué, Hattab's successor Abdelmalek Deroukdal vowed the GSPC will not allow itself to be captured like Madani Mezrag's Islamic Salvation Army. He declared jihad and that his organisation "has patience, ultra-modern weaponry and experienced men".

Algeria and its neighbouring countries are seeking broader anti-terrorism co-operation as security and stability of the whole region are at stake. The nations also want to target the conditions which caused it to emerge.

Algeria, which shares a border of more than 2,000 kilometres with Mali and Niger, is preparing a co-operation policy with both countries to guard against terrorism and criminality.

The security threat in the Sahel-Saharan region has been a focus of attention in recent years for Algeria and its strategic partners, including the United States and the EU. Algeria continues to draw its partners' attention to the vulnerability of the Sahara to terrorism.

Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra, the new director of the African Centre for Study and Research into Terrorism (CAERT), asked African governments on October 5th to increase their joint efforts and co-operation in the fight against terrorism at a terrorism-themed meeting of the Council for Peace and Security for the African Union in Dakkar. He called on them to offer support to the CAERT, particularly in exchanging intelligence.

The extension of the GSPC beyond the Algerian border across five nations, as well as its connections with other groups and the risk of al-Qaeda cells being set up, have led to an appreciation in recent years of the need for strengthened policies from the countries of the Sahelo-Saharan region to combat terrorism co-operatively and to secure borders.

Recognising the threat, the United States has been working to fight against terrorism in the region.

Since January 2004, the US military has deployed resources to support the local armies' fight against the GSPC and its local connections through the Pan Sahel Initiative.

In June 2005, the US army carried out three weeks of anti-terrorist exercises in the Sahel, which included Algerian participation, as part of its "Operation Flintlock 2005", which aimed at preventing the desert zones from becoming terrorist hideouts.

The programme, developed by the Pentagon, Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department has expanded from Niger, Mauritania, Mali and Chad to the upper Maghreb.

Algeria concerned over merger of GSPC and al-Qaeda

[Al-khiyal]

Two bombs exploded in Lakhdaria

[Al-khiyal]

ANSA) -ALGERI, 22 OTT- Tre poliziotti sono morti in un attentato in Algeria attribuito al Gruppo Salafita per la predicazione e il combattimento vicino ad Al Qaida. L'attacco che ha avuto luogo ieri nella zona di Jijel (350 km a est di Algeri) ha portato a 27 il numero delle vittime durante il Ramadan di quest'anno. I tre poliziotti, riferisce la stampa locale, sono stati uccisi a colpi d'arma fuoco durante un agguato teso da un commando composto, secondo alcuni testimoni, da una quindicina di elementi.

Algeria: attentato, morti 3 agenti

Italian news agency report on the killing of three policemen yesterday at Jijel, believed to have been carried out by a 15-strong group belonging to the GSPC. The deaths bring to 27 the number of people killed in violent attacks in Algeria during Ramadan.

[Al-khiyal]

BAMAKO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Algerian Islamic insurgents launched a revenge attack against a group of former Tuareg rebels in the deserts of northern Mali on Monday, killing nine of them, a Malian official said on Tuesday.

The attack came a month after Tuareg fighters killed a leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Algerian rebel movement that has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda.

GSPC fighters ambushed members of the Tuareg's Democratic Alliance for Change near the village of Arouan, some 150 km (95 miles) from the desert city Kidal where Tuareg rebels launched an uprising in May to demand greater autonomy.

"There was violent fighting. The toll was nine dead, several injured and two prisoners from the ranks of the Alliance," the official said. He could not provide casualty figures for the GSPC.

The GSPC leader killed in September by the Tuaregs was believed to be close to Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the Algerian militants' commander in the southern Sahara.

"The GSPC's strategy is clear: they want to settle a score with the leaders of the Alliance before the disarmament of its fighters, which should begin immediately," said the official.

In July, the Malian Tuareg rebels, who have sought greater autonomy for their desert region of northern Mali, signed a peace deal with the government in Bamako, brokered by Algeria, whose military has been seeking to stamp out the still active GSPC.

Tuareg fighters have long coexisted with the GSPC in the lawless regions of northern Mali, where they control trans-Saharan smuggling routes into north Africa. However, recent GSPC attempts to recruit Tuaregs have raised tensions between the groups.

The Tuareg are due to begin disarming this week, but Malian officials could not confirm whether the process had already begun.

The Muslim holiday of Eid, to mark the end of the Ramadan fasting season, has slowed activity across the Sahel region.

Algerian militants ambush Malian Tuaregs, kill 9

[Al-khiyal]

Terrorist arrested, another surrendered in Djelfa

[Al-khiyal]

Adlene Layada discloses details of his abduction in Algiers