Algeria hit by surge in guerrilla violence

[Al-khiyal]

Algiers, 16 Feb. (AKI) - Algerian police killed 26 alleged Islamic militants and arrested 35 suspects in an anti-terror operation on Thursday following a round of deadly attacks in Tizi Ouzu and Bourmedes, in Algeria's eastern Kabylia area, claimed by an al-Qaeda-linked group in Algeria, Arabic satellite television al-Jazeera reported on Friday. The police operation took place in the mountain area of Qashra, near the eastern city of Skikda, where many militants are believed to be hiding.

The Organisation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - previously called the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) - has claimed responsibility for the series of explosions on Tuesday that killed six and wounded another 20.

Leaders of the terror group are reportedly among the militants killed by police on Thursday.

The GSPC is believed to have recently changed its name to the Organisation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb after it pledged allegiance last year to the international terror network led by Osama bin Laden.

An Algerian Islamic insurgency started in 1992 after authorities cancelled elections an Islamist party was poised to win.

The insurgency is now conducted by the GSPC with an estimated 500 militants, significantly less than in the 1990s when some 30,000 insurgents operated in the country. Militant strongholds are located in Algeria's mountains and parts of the southern desert.

[Al-khiyal]

Al Qaeda unit claims Algeria blasts

In a communiqué posted on Islamist websites on February 13, 2007, the "Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib" organization, formerly known as "The Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat" (GSPC), claimed responsibility for the February 13, 2007 simultaneous explosions in Algeria. According to the message, the mujahideen "selected their targets carefully... using remote guidance technology [for the car bombs]." The message adds that the successful attack caused the total destruction of five police stations in both the Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzo districts, and led to the death and wounding of over 140 people associated with the police.

The message ends with a warning to "the robbers' state and the slaves of the French Jews and Christians that the descendants of Tariq Ibn Ziyad and the youth of Islam in the Islamic Maghrib have made a decision to uproot [you] and to liberate the lands of Islam from every Christian, apostate, and collaborator."

"Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib" claims responsibility for the six car bombs in Algeria

[Al-khiyal]

On February 15, 2007, Islamist websites posted a 24-minute video produced by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb organization (formerly called Al-Jama'a Al-Salafiyya Lil-Da'wa Wal-Qital). The video, dated February 2007 and titled "Ambush and Five Bombings against the Betrayers of Islam in Algeria," was described as the first in a series of videos called "Sword Shadows."

The film opens with an excerpt from an address by Osama bin-Laden, followed by an address by the commander of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Mus'ab Abd Al-Wudud. The latter calls on Muslim youths to "join the contemporary war of Islam, waged by the camp of the believers against the camp of the infidels."

A caption then states that the film will show the following:

a) An ambush laid out for Algerian military forces in Al-Akhdariya.
b) Two bombs set off next to an Algerian army convoy in Dalas.
c) Two land mines set off next to soldiers from the Al-Akhdariya army base.
d) A bomb set off next to a City Guard commander in Shu'bat Al-'Amir.
e) A bomb set off next to Budkhan City Guard forces.

The captions for the footage of the first attack explain that it targeted forces from the National Army's Al-Sham base in the Al-Akhdariya mountains. They state further that 24 "betrayers of Islam" were killed in this operation, while no jihad fighters were killed or injured.

The footage shows a convoy of trucks traveling across mountainous terrain, and several jihad fighters opening heavy fire from an ambush. Next, the film shows the bodies of Algerian soldiers as well as equipment captured by the jihad fighters, including guns, ammunition and a radio communications device.

The next two operations shown in the film both involve two explosions. According to the video, the first explosion was to draw as many soldiers as possible to the area, to kill them with the second explosion.

The last two operations were against City Guard forces in two different locations.

A link to the video will not be provided due to the sensitive nature of its content.

Below are images from the video:

Video shows Al-Qaeda operations against Algerian army

[Al-khiyal]

Algeria counter-terror vigilance questioned

A wave of Islamist rebel bombings has prompted critics to query the effectiveness of Algeria's counter-terror efforts and ask whether an ambitious amnesty programme is partly to blame. Seven bombs targeting police stations went off almost simultaneously in and near the Kabylie region east of Algiers on Tuesday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens. The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), claimed responsibility for the bombs, the latest attack in a stepped-up campaign of violence by the country's main Islamist rebel group.

Several newspaper commentators and opposition critics said the underlying reason for the group's expanded ability to act was what they called weaknesses in the execution of a policy of national reconciliation aimed at ending years of violence. They suggested excessive lenience towards former Islamist rebels had served to weaken police readiness and raised the morale of increasingly bold rebels seeking to set up purist Islamic rule in the giant oil- and gas-exporting country. "National reconciliation has created a demobilisation as much among the security services as among the population," said the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy, a secular opposition party based in the Kabylie region.

Liberte newspaper blamed a "fall in vigilance on the part of everyone ... including of the State, which is incapable of maintaining motivation and crucial vigilance because of the promises of future repentance." The National Liberation Front, leading member of a ruling coalition, called for redoubled counter-terror vigilance. Critics say a vociferous government publicity campaign in 2006 calling on rebels to disarm under an amnesty had prompted Algerians to ask why police should bother to stay on alert when insurgents were expected to give up and rejoin society.

An Islamist revolt began in 1992 after the then military-backed authorities, fearing an Iran-style revolution, scrapped a parliamentary election an Islamist party was set to win. Up to 200,000 people were killed in the ensuing violence. The rebels, long in decline, do not pose a national threat although they are still able to menace mountainous Kabyile and the south thanks to local factors - their criminal and family links and the use of remote terrain, according to Algerians.

Government opponents say officials inadvertently encouraged the rebels by mishandling a 2006 amnesty for rebels. By law the six-month immunity offer, which was rejected by the GSPC at the outset, expired at the end of August. But no government official proclaimed it over. Officials instead said that in the interests of stabilising the country, they would in practice continue to offer immunity to any fighter prepared to disarm. Critics said the amnesty's de facto continuation smacked of weakness and an attempt to improve the lukewarm rebel response - the original immunity offer brought the surrender of just a few dozen of the estimated 500 fighters still at large. Few are believed to have surrendered since August.

The amnesty is part of a reconciliation plan which also included releases from prison of former rebels, compensation to the bereaved and help for rebels to reintegrate into society. Secular Algerians were appalled to see several prominent Islamist rebel commanders walk free from prison in March 2006. "It (the latest violence) is the result of the policy pursued by the government since 2004 and its reconciliation charter, which washed the terrorists of their crimes while asking Algerians to contain their grief," said the RCD.

Algerians say that, because of the amnesty, security forces who previously did not hesitate to arrest a suspect now had to defer to officials managing the compensation and amnesty scheme. Some of these officials have held negotiations with relatives of insurgents holed up in the Kabylie mountains. Rezzag Bara, an adviser to President Abdlelaziz Bouteflika, said Tuesday's bombs were part of a global menace that required a coordinated international response. "This needs all our cooperation," he said, adding Algeria, like many African countries, was vulnerable to terrorism. "We know our own vulnerabilities," he added. "Porous borders, traffic in small arms, poverty and indoctrination by Salafist Islamists are some of the factors that help entrench terrorism."

Critics query Algeria counter-terror vigilance

[Al-khiyal]

(ANSA)- ALGERI, 18 FEB - Dopo gli attentati che martedi' hanno colpito la Cabilia, cresce la paura di un attacco ad Algeri. Un ordigno artigianale di debole potenza e' esploso ieri a Oued Smar, quartiere orientale della citta', mentre giovedi' pomeriggio una bomba sarebbe esplosa al passaggio di un convoglio militare nella zona di Boumerdes, facendo tre feriti.Almeno tre ordigni sono stati disinnescati negli ultimi giorni, uno a Draa El Mizane e due a Boufarik.

Algeria, allarme nuovi attacchi

[Al-khiyal]

Lundi 19 Février 2007 - - Un camion militaire de ravitaillement a été l’objet de tirs nourris par un groupe terroriste embusqué au lieu-dit Ighil-Mehni, non loin d’un barrage fixe installé à moins d’un kilomètre de la localité d’Aghrib.

Le camion ciblé par les terroristes, qui reprennent du service en Kabylie, dans le cadre de ce qui ressemble à un redéploiement appuyé par l’organisation criminelle internationale Al-Qaïda, se dirigeait vers Fréha venant d’Azeffoun, selon M. Yermech, maire d’Aghrib. Ce dernier arrivé à Ighil Mehni, essuya des tirs de kalachnikovs de terroristes embusqués qui se sont heurtés à une riposte énergique des militaires faisant fuir les assaillants. Deux militaires furent malheureusement blessés au cours de cette attaque qui survient à moins d’une semaine des attentats visant des commissariats de police et des brigades de la gendarmerie de la région et au moment où un vaste ratissage se déroule depuis plusieurs jours sur les hauteurs de Aïn-El-Hammam, Mekla et Iferhounène.

Embuscade contre un camion de ravitaillement militaire

[Al-khiyal]

Security forces have arrested six terrorists in the place called Ramla, Bouarfa district, in the province of Blida (50 km south of Algiers). The six individuals were preparing terrorist attacks in some area of Blida, according to information given by some sources.

Police succeeded in dismantling the terrorist group following information they had received about a suspected man (a café owner) having undertaken contacts with a terrorist group’s members. After being arrested and interrogated, the man informed police about his five accomplices who were then arrested. Initial police investigations show that the accused have no previous history in relation to terrorism; they had just been recruited by terrorist groups. The main suspect said he was contacted by terrorists who asked him to carry out blast attacks in Blida city centre. Some places in the city were selected. He admitted he got 10,000 dinars in return, but was promised to more after the attacks.

El-Khabar sources disclosed that investigations into the affair are still in progress, investigators are trying now to find information regarding possible links between those arrested and the seven bomb attacks that occurred in the provinces of Boumerdes and Tizi-Ouzou (respectively 40 and 100 km east of Algiers), last week (February 13th). The attacks thwarted in Blida were planned to occur at the same time as those carried out in Boumerdes and Tizi-Ouzou. This comes as part of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb organization’s attempts to make its presence felt.

6 terrorists apprehended in Blida