Algeria Again? Contemporary affairs
Interesting story in BBC here.
Quote:
The militants carried out a rocket attack on an army post, killing five soldiers, while 10 Islamists reportedly died in an army counter-attack.
A BBC correspondent in Algeria says this is the most serious Islamist attack for several months.
They are thought to belong to a group now renamed "al-Qaeda in the Maghreb".
Earlier this week, the Salafist Group of Preaching and Combat (GSPC) announced that it had changed its name.
This latest clash comes amid repeated calls by the army to the general population to help them in their fight against armed militants.
This also comes after the Algerian government tried a limited amnesty program.
Islamist Terrorism in Northwestern Africa
Feb 07 Policy Focus from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:
Islamist Terrorism in Northwestern Africa: A 'Thorn in the Neck' of the United States?
Quote:
...Sahelian Africa as a whole is not a hotbed of Islamic radicalism. But a unique mélange of international trends and local circumstances makes the region an attractive area of operations for Islamist terrorists. Locally, political Islam has already become a vehicle of protest against undemocratic regimes, giving rise to Islamically motivated political violence in Algeria, Nigeria, and Morocco that is still simmering. The global trend of Islamic revivalism and—on the extreme end of the spectrum—the metamorphosis and spread of al-Qaeda’s ideology have exacerbated local conflicts and flavored the expression of political grievances. As these developments intersect in northwestern Africa, they facilitate terrorists’ efforts to blend with the local population....
And what about right next door in Morocco???
From the BBC yesterday (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6540369.stm)
Quote:
'Bombers' die in Casablanca raid
The police raid took place in an impoverished residential area
A police raid on suspected militants in the Moroccan city of Casablanca has set off gunfights and suicide bombings that have left at least five men dead
One wonders how this maps to the events in Algeria.
I also heard that Algeria recently declined when asked to be the host country for the US AFRICOM HQ.
Al Qaeda of the Maghrib takes credit for attacks in Algeria
Quote:
In a statement posted this morning on the internet, a group calling itself Al Qaeda of the Maghrib has taken credit for a series of attacks in Algeria.
The posting includes three photographs of the young men who they claim carried out the three suicide attacks.
…
Quote:
The first target was the headquarters of the apostate government in the capital Algiers where the martyr Muath Bin Jabal drove a truck filled of 700 kg of explosives storming in on the apostates in their fortress and according to our own sources killing about 45 and injuring an unknown number of them, destroying a part of the building
The second target was the headquarters on the international INTERPOL in the capital Algiers (the gate of Zuwar) where the martyr Al-Zubeir Abu Sajeda drove a truck filled with 700 kg of explosives and he stormed in the den of the tyranny and infidelity and those who are fighting Jihad and he was able with God's blessing to destroy it completely killing at least eight apostates and injuring an unknown number of them
The third target was the headquarters of the special forces of the Police in Ezzouar Gate in the capital where the martyr Abu Dujana drove a truck filled with 500 kg of explosives storming the apostate fortress and he was able with God's blessing to destroy it completely killing and injuring a large number of the apostates.
…
http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/
Reactions in the Algerian and Arab Press to the Al-Qaeda Attacks in Algiers
Interesting press reaction - well worth reading the entire dispatch.
Quote:
Special Dispatch-North Africa/Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project
April 17, 2007
No. 1546
Reactions in the Algerian and Arab Press to the Al-Qaeda Attacks in Algiers
To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit:
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD154607 .
The suicide bombings in Algeria on April 11, 2007, the first spectacular attack carried out by the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, brought the region to the forefront of the headlines in the Arab press - especially as they occurred in tandem with a number of abortive suicide bombings in Casablanca. In Algeria, fears for the future were underscored by memories of the dark years of the 1990s, and the press was unanimous in calling for concerted action against terrorism. Many also criticized government policies, in particular the National Reconciliation plan, which aims to reintegrate radical Islamists into society.
In the international Arab press, well-known commentator 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed criticized what he described as fallacious assumptions about the root causes of terrorism, saying that the terrorists are driven by religious extremism, and not by poverty, nor by the lack of democracy - which, he emphasized, they consider to be heresy.
From Iraq to Algeria, Al-Qaeda's Long Reach
30 May Washington Post - From Iraq to Algeria, Al-Qaeda's Long Reach by Craig Whitlock.
Quote:
Al-Qaeda has rapidly extended its influence across North Africa by aiding and organizing local groups that are demonstrating a renewed ability to launch terrorist attacks in the region, such as the triple suicide bombings that killed 33 people here last month, according to counterterrorism officials and analysts.
The bombers who struck the Government Palace and a police station in Algiers, the capital, are believed to have been local residents. But Algerian authorities are examining evidence that the bombers were siphoned from recruiting pipelines that have sent hundreds of North African fighters to Iraq and perhaps were trained by veterans of the Iraqi insurgency, U.S. and European intelligence officials said...
Group in Algeria Turned To Al-Qaeda for Assistance
30 May Washington Post - Group in Algeria Turned To Al-Qaeda for Assistance by Craig Whitlock.
Quote:
Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Algeria was originally called the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, a name derived from a fundamentalist branch of Islam. Founded in 1998, six years after the outbreak of a civil war that has killed an estimated 200,000 Algerians, the group's stated mission was to topple the military-backed government and transform Algeria into a theocracy.
Despite pledges to avoid civilian targets, the Algerian Salafists experienced a steady erosion in popular support and saw their ranks dwindle to fewer than 1,000 fighters, according to Algerian officials...
With the organization on the ropes, Droukdel decided to intensify efforts to reach out to al-Qaeda and other extremist networks, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials...
Al-Qaida leader in Algeria surrenders
An intriguing report:
Quote:
The ministry says Atmane Touati — alias Abu El Abbas — gave up after his wife "convinced her husband to abandon the criminal horde and come home."
Link:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100531/...amic_militants
Book Review: The Islamist Challenge in Algeria: A Political History
Book Review: The Islamist Challenge in Algeria: A Political History
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Spring time election, no clearing out expected
A rare news article on Algeria, undoubtedly due to an invitation to the foreign press to report on this Thursday's elections:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...es-arab-spring
Alongside a comment piece:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...t-expectations
Someone clearly believes in saving, saving and saving - with my emphasis:
Quote:
At present, Algeria has a staggering bank reserve of $200bn from oil and gas revenues – though the people are not benefiting from this. According to a recent report of the International Monetary Fund, youth unemployment in Algeria stands at 21% (two-thirds of the population is under the age of 35).
The Amenas Siege and the Growing Hostage Problem in Africa
The Amenas Siege and the Growing Hostage Problem in Africa
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Jihadists knocking on the door?
Algeria despite its size, oil & gas resources, position and history rarely gets English language coverage, it is so refreshing to see this Time article; it starts wth:
Quote:
One wet, chilly February morning, Ali Zaoui climbed into his car in Algeria’s capital, drove 300 miles south into the desert, and knocked on the door of a three-bedroom house in the oasis city of Ghardaïa. Zaoui was well known to the occupants. They were the parents of the then most wanted man in North Africa, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist commander who had masterminded the hostage siege in January at a natural-gas plant in his native Algeria. The attack resulted in the deaths of 38 foreigners, including managers and specialists of Western oil companies. It was Algeria’s worst terrorist attack in years, and the worst ever for the global oil industry, anywhere. Zaoui, a veteran anti-terror fighter for Algeria’s security services, had spent years coaxing armed militants to surrender under an amnesty program and had come to know Belmokhtar’s parents well over five years of trying to persuade one of Algeria’s most fearsome jihadists to surrender. He never had won over Belmokhtar. But Zaoui thought they had an understanding: Don’t target Algeria.
Link:http://world.time.com/2013/04/01/the...ttles-algeria/
In Amenas Attack: Can Corporates Learn from the Military in Hostile Operating Environ
The Decline of Islamist Parties in Algeria
There is a Presidential election in April 2014, yes I know what does that actually mean?
In rare coverage of Algeria, Carnegie have published a short article (as per title):http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/20...n-algeria/h0s4
Here is a taster:
Quote:
A few months ahead of the presidential elections—and despite their pronouncements—the Islamists have not only proven unprepared but also unable to rally behind a consensus candidate. This is a strong indication that they lack a real electoral future.
(Ends) The images from Egypt and Syria serve as painful reminders, and the belief that a vote for the Islamists will not be the solution to Algeria’s problems seems to have only strengthened.
What happens in Algeria IMHO matters in the Arab World, not for the "man in street", rather those who today have the power.
Algeria’s ‘Years of Blood’: Not Quite What They Seem
A short, useful article on the 'dirty war' and ends with:
Quote:
Grant it to the Algerian regime: they orchestrated this brilliantly. When the wave of rebellions broke on the Arab world in 2010, they hardly touched Algeria. The population was frightened of the Islamists and frightened of a return to violence; the Islamists were broken, splintered into too many factions to be any kind of force. The security services had done their work: whatever the level of discontent with their colourless rule, the population is now convinced that the only alternative is takfirism—and for the urban, the secular (a large number in Algeria), and the women and national minorities like the Berbers this is enough to hold together a strategic majority for the regime.
Link:http://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2...hat-they-seem/
Terrible actions in Algeria, now Nigeria
The first of three old articles by the late Mahfoud Bennoune, an Algerian academic, which will appear slowly till July and starts that the late Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka:
Quote:
believed that one of the best ways to comprehend the kind of horror that is happening in Nigeria is to remember the experience of other nations in the region confronted with jihadist groups much like Boko Haram.
Then asks:
Quote:
Some of the most common reactions to the mass kidnapping of school girls by the jihadist group Boko Haram in Nigeria are to ask questions like: how can this be happening? Why would anyone do something so terrible?
Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/ma...n-mindlessness
Algeria: North Africa’s reluctant policeman
An important, concise explanation of how Algeria is working, this time with the emphasis on diplomacy, although other capabilities are still around:http://africanarguments.org/2014/09/...-imad-mesdoua/
Quote:
Officials in Algeria still hope they can steer the region away from simplistic military interventionism, towards political solutions and “greater responsibility”.
(Ends with) The fierce debate raging inside the Algerian regime over greater or less interventionist action will continue. For now, North Africa’s ‘reluctant policeman’ will no doubt stick to a number of its non-interventionist dogmas. However, should a cataclysmic event like In Amenas occur on Algerian soil once more, the country will have no choice but to take decisive action.
Author's bio:http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/imad-mesdoua/
Now for something different, as Professor John Schindler refers to Algeria within a wider article on counter-terrorism is not always what you think you see:http://20committee.com/2014/09/25/wh...rism-is-wrong/
Scheming and ruthless come to mind.
Algeria's Islamist Revival
An unusual article on Algerian politics and society via Carnegie:http://carnegie-mec.org/2015/06/26/s...-is-clear/ib67
It ends with:
Quote:
Twenty-three years after the bloodiest chapter in contemporary Algeria, with 150,000 dead and 7,000 missing, victims of a war between the state and armed Islamist groups during which a whole society was held hostage, things do not appear to be very optimistic: here we are again in the same place caught between a patriarchal state and an Islamist revival.
Deciphering Algeria: the stirrings of reform?
A rare report on Algeria in English, by Andrew Lebovich and a key point:
Quote:
It challenges the widely held perception of Algeria as stable but stagnant, pointing out that the country has gradually begun to open up.
Link:http://www.ecfr.eu/publications/summ..._of_reform5047
One must wonder if all the calculations remain valid as the price of oil drops.
Algeria’s transition to uncertainty
A political-economic overview of Algeria, with some social aspects too and the sub-title:
Quote:
Algeria is facing succession scrambles and economic crisis. Why are the country’s leaders handing the country over to the IMF rather than use its political and economic talent?
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-a...to-uncertainty
Jihadist "crimes that surpass all understanding": a letter from 1995 Algeria
It is rare to find an Algerian writing about what happened in Algeria IMHO. This 1995 letter addressed to the jihadists resonates today. The introduction:
Quote:
In this letter written during Algeria’s “dark decade” of fundamentalist violence - sadly relevant today - Mahfoud Bennoune argued that movements purveying “Islamic states” through terror are ultimately “doomed to failure.”
(At the end and we wish)Your movement, which has mistaken the era, the people and the target, is the negation of reason and democracy, of common sense and of Islamic, humanist and universal values. This is the reason why it can never be the bearer of peace, progress, prosperity, culture, civilization or of understanding and cooperation between peoples. Your movement is doomed to failure.
Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/mahfoud-bennoune/jihadist-crimes-that-surpass-all-understanding-letter-from-1995-algeria?
Will the Next Arab Revolt Be in Algeria?
From the think tank FDD a short update; sub-titled:
Quote:
Religion, economics, and demographics are potentially explosive mix
It ends with:
Quote:
Dire warnings have been issued about a pending implosion in Algeria and a flood of migrants to Europe. At least one prominent Algerian expert views this prediction as off the mark. Nonetheless, the dangerous mix of radical Islamism, economic instability, and growing youth unrest could be the recipe for a new Arab revolt in North Africa.
Link:https://medium.com/@FDD/will-the-nex...7b4#.ko816okax