Algeria Again? Contemporary affairs

[Jedburgh]

CEIP, 9 May 07: Demilitarizing Algeria

...With Bouteflika’s health now in question, his chances of securing a third term in 2009 are in doubt and arguments over the succession have already begun to preoccupy and divide the political/military elite. Moreover, the onset of a factional dispute over this since the summer of 2006 has coincided with a striking—and quite unexpected—recrudescence of terrorist activity. The main armed movement still active, the Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat, or GSPC) was previously noted for confining its attacks to the security forces and sparing civilians. Under new leaders, it has recently reverted to the indiscriminate terrorism formerly associated with the GIA while re-branding itself as a branch of Al Qaeda. With the unprecedented attack by a suicide bomber on the principal government building in central Algiers on April 11, Algerian politics has once more entered a period of uncertainty and anxiety....

[Jedburgh]

The Economist, 11 Dec 07: Algeria: A Grisly Attack

Who is killing whom in Algeria, and why? Islamic terrorism against western targets makes a certain kind of sense, and the violence in Iraq has its own grisly logic. But who were the targets of the twin-bombings in Algiers on Tuesday December 11th? One blast killed a busload of university students who happened to be passing by. The other bomb seems to have targeted the offices of the United Nations Development Programme, one of the more apolitical of the organisation’s many bodies.

Algeria has suffered a spate of violence in the past year. This has usually been explained as a hangover from Algeria’s particularly brutal civil war in the 1990s. But the nature of Tuesday’s attack suggests a more worrying culprit: an alliance, announced last year, between local Islamic terrorists and al-Qaeda. Nearly simultaneous multiple bombings, aimed at maximising terror rather than hitting specific political targets, has become a calling card of the international terrorist group....

The Long War Journal, 11 Dec 07: Al Qaeda hits UN offices, courts, police station in Algiers

....Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb most certainly conducted the Algiers bombings. The mode of attack - coordinated bombings against government and international institutions designed to inflict massive casualties and maximum media coverage - is al Qaeda's specialties. The North African branch of al Qaeda has taken credit for similar strikes in the past.

On April 11, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb took credit for a pair of coordinated suicide bombings in the capital. A powerful bomb was detonated outside the headquarters of Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem's headquarters in Algiers, and another blast occurred outside the headquarters of the security forces.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb took credit for two suicide attacks in Algeria over the course of three days in September. The first attack targeted the Algerian president during a visit to the town of Batna while the second attack targeted a coast guard barracks in Dellys in eastern Algeria. At least 69 were killed and 154 were wounded in the suicide bombings.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is the result of Al Qaeda's efforts to unite the various Salafist terror groups in North Africa and stems from the merger of the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC), the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and the Tunisian Combatant Group. The GSPC forms the nucleus of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.....

[Ron Humphrey]

The Economist, 11 Dec 07: Algeria: A Grisly Attack

The Long War Journal, 11 Dec 07: Al Qaeda hits UN offices, courts, police station in Algiers

I would posit that AQ and others are as aware of history in that area as we are and as such may see it as an area in which more effective recruiting of individuals with historic experience in their arena.

Simplistic view I know but a possibility non-the-less

[Jedburgh]

The Jamestown Foundation's Terrorism Monitor, 7 Feb 08:

The Ideological Struggle Over al-Qaeda’s Suicide Tactics in Algeria

On January 29, a lorry laden with 1,400 lbs of explosives and driven by a member of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was detonated in the town of Thenia, east of Algiers, killing four and wounding an additional 23 people. The target of the attack was the police barracks in the center of town, and among the dead was a police officer who has been heralded for preventing the bomber from detonating at his targeted location. While this attack did not result in the high casualty figures seen in AQIM’s previous suicide attacks, such as the December 11 bombing of the United Nations and Constitutional Court in Algiers, this attack constitutes yet another in an unpopular series of suicide bombings conducted by AQIM that have resulted in casualty figures not seen since Algeria’s civil war. In a subsequent statement issued by AQIM on January 30, the group claimed responsibility for the attack and addressed the ideological and societal tension brewing over the group's continued use of this tactic in Algeria. Despite the unpopularity of suicide bombings in Algeria and the development of an appealing counter-narrative by members of the ulema (body of Islamic scholars), it appears AQIM is positioned to carry on with its suicide bombing campaign, particularly as the group absorbs fighters returning from Iraq......

[Jedburgh]

The Jamestown Foundation's Terrorism Focus, 5 Aug 08:

Restructuring al-Qaeda’s Algerian Insurgency

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the North African branch of al-Qaeda, has been driven to the wall. Despite a new suicide attack that injured 25 on Sunday morning in Tizi Ouzou, Kabylie, the Algerian-based group is facing difficulties that could endanger its very existence. The number of militants is shrinking due to continuous military operations and difficulties in recruiting new volunteers. International anti-terrorism cooperation is also drying up sources of financing.

Since the beginning of 2008, Algerian authorities, with the help of neighboring countries, have arrested or killed more than 200 AQIM members, according to security sources. The great majority of these individuals were affiliated to support networks, while about thirty were active terrorists.

The strategy of the People’s National Army (Armée Nationale Populaire - ANP) to focus mainly on key figures of AQIM has proven largely successful.....