Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Examiner
April 17, 2007
By Rowan Scarborough, National Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON - Young jihadists in North Africa with links to al-Qaida have trained outside the region and then returned to conduct attacks at home, a U.S. counter terrorism official said Monday.
The practice raises fears that a new alliance between al-Qaida and an Algeria-based militant group will produce more terror attacks in North Africa and in Europe.
Algeria, a U.S. ally that suffered thousands of dead at the hands of Islamic militants in the 1990s, has seen a resumption of terror attacks in recent months. On April 11, two suicide car bombers, in an attack similar to those carried out by al-Qaida, struck the prime minister’s headquarters and a police station in the capital, Algiers, killing more than 30.
North Africa is prime recruiting ground for al-Qaida. It finds and indoctrinates disaffected young people and takes them to Iraq, via Syria, to train as suicide bombers. U.S. intelligence reports that some North Africans go to Iraq not for immediate martyrdom, but to learn terror tactics for use at home.
“We have seen jihadists from this area go elsewhere in the Middle East and come back and conduct attacks,” said the counter-terrorism official, who spoke on a condition of anonymity. “We have seen that in Europe as well. What happens in North Africa has significance that goes beyond the region.”
Ayman al–Zawahiri, the second highest ranking operative in al-Qaida, announced last year that his group had merged with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, Algeria’s main militant organization, known by its French acronym GSPC. It later changed its name to al-Qaida Group in the Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for the April 11 bombings.
“Al-Qaida sees Morocco and Algeria as sort of the soft underbelly of Europe,” Heritage Foundation terrorism expert James Phillips said. “Al-Qaida has acquired all of GSPC’s networks for moving people and money and contraband into and out of Europe.”
Al-Qaida has teamed with other terrorists before, including the now-deceased Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi who formed al-Qaida in Iraq.
“He wanted the al-Qaida brand name, and they wanted access to his networks and the publicity he generated,” Phillips said.
Two suicide bombers struck Saturday in neighboring Morocco. The United States is studying whether the perpetrators, two brothers, had ties to al-Qaida.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced the military will create a new African Command by September to coordinate U.S. operations on a continent where radical Islam makes inroads. Currently, U.S. Central Command has responsibility for East Africa and European Command for North Africa.
April 17, 2007
By Rowan Scarborough, National Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON - Young jihadists in North Africa with links to al-Qaida have trained outside the region and then returned to conduct attacks at home, a U.S. counter terrorism official said Monday.
The practice raises fears that a new alliance between al-Qaida and an Algeria-based militant group will produce more terror attacks in North Africa and in Europe.
Algeria, a U.S. ally that suffered thousands of dead at the hands of Islamic militants in the 1990s, has seen a resumption of terror attacks in recent months. On April 11, two suicide car bombers, in an attack similar to those carried out by al-Qaida, struck the prime minister’s headquarters and a police station in the capital, Algiers, killing more than 30.
North Africa is prime recruiting ground for al-Qaida. It finds and indoctrinates disaffected young people and takes them to Iraq, via Syria, to train as suicide bombers. U.S. intelligence reports that some North Africans go to Iraq not for immediate martyrdom, but to learn terror tactics for use at home.
“We have seen jihadists from this area go elsewhere in the Middle East and come back and conduct attacks,” said the counter-terrorism official, who spoke on a condition of anonymity. “We have seen that in Europe as well. What happens in North Africa has significance that goes beyond the region.”
Ayman al–Zawahiri, the second highest ranking operative in al-Qaida, announced last year that his group had merged with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, Algeria’s main militant organization, known by its French acronym GSPC. It later changed its name to al-Qaida Group in the Maghreb, which claimed responsibility for the April 11 bombings.
“Al-Qaida sees Morocco and Algeria as sort of the soft underbelly of Europe,” Heritage Foundation terrorism expert James Phillips said. “Al-Qaida has acquired all of GSPC’s networks for moving people and money and contraband into and out of Europe.”
Al-Qaida has teamed with other terrorists before, including the now-deceased Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi who formed al-Qaida in Iraq.
“He wanted the al-Qaida brand name, and they wanted access to his networks and the publicity he generated,” Phillips said.
Two suicide bombers struck Saturday in neighboring Morocco. The United States is studying whether the perpetrators, two brothers, had ties to al-Qaida.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced the military will create a new African Command by September to coordinate U.S. operations on a continent where radical Islam makes inroads. Currently, U.S. Central Command has responsibility for East Africa and European Command for North Africa.