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Three Dead In Alleged Al-Qaeda Attack
Algiers, 4 April (AKI) - Three Algerian soldiers died and seven others were wounded in an attack in Biskra, west of Algiers, attributed to an al-Qaeda-linked local terror group, local reports said on Wednesday. Militants with the Organisation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the former Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), attacked the military convoy near the village of al-Ihbal, near where a similar attack was reportedly carried out by the group's members last week. The attacks follow a major anti-terror police operation in the northern Kabylia region. Hundreds of militants have surrendered from 28 February until late August last year under a national reconciliation plan promoted by the government, which granted immunity to militants who turned themselves in provided they had not participated in massacres, rapes or bombings of public places. However, the offshoot of the GSPC, the Organisation of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is the only militant group to have remained active in the country after it refused to abandon the armed struggle in exchange for the amnesty. 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's heirs with an estimated 500 militants, significantly less than in the 1990s when some 30,000 insurgents operated in the country. Posted by: Steve 2007-04-04 |
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