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GSPC under US radar
An extremist group known for deadly bombings and a brutal campaign to create an Islamic state in Algeria is moving to establish stronger ties to Al Qaeda, raising fears the militants may launch terrorist attacks beyond their North African territory. The new leader of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an armed organization whose decade-long aim has been to overthrow the Algerian government, declared allegiance to Osama bin Ladenâs network in the fall. At the time, it received little attention, but now authorities worry the Salafists could become a dangerous affiliate of Al Qaeda, which has shown an ability to work through local groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia, U.S. officials in Washington told The Associated Press. Authorities also worry that Algeria - with vast stretches of Sahara desert in the remote south and long borders that are hard to monitor - could become a haven for Al Qaeda members, U.S. officials told AP. Signs of the Salafistsâ expansionist designs have emerged in the past year with dozens of alleged operatives arrested in Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and France - where the group is considered the top terrorist threat, French intelligence officials told AP. Nabil Sahraoui, after becoming the Salafist leader last year, declared the groupâs allegiance with Al Qaeda in September. Sahraoui ousted longtime leader Hassan Hattab, who reportedly was viewed within Salafist ranks as too moderate. Under Hattab, the Salafists distrusted outsiders and kept Al Qaeda at arms length, focusing instead on a domestic agenda. Hattab also supported hacking up people with chainsaws and the like. If heâs the moderate one, I donât even want to think what Sahraoui is like. Sahraouiâs declaration confirms authoritiesâ thinking that some regional terrorist groups are going international, joining the broader conflict of Islam versus the West, a French intelligence official told AP. Another analyst with high-level contacts in French intelligence sees the declaration as mostly posturing - a way to raise the Salafistsâ profile and stir fear. Sahraoui, in his mid-to-late 30s, has a reputation for ruthlessness, stemming partly from a murder campaign he ran against a now-defunct insurgent group, the Islamic Salvation Army, after it called a cease-fire with the Algerian government in 1997. Despite Sahraouiâs ambitions, it remains unclear whether the limited resources of the Salafist group would be at Al Qaedaâs disposal, said Richard Evans, editor at Janeâs Terrorism and Insurgency Centre. The group - known by its French acronym GSPC - is fragmented with autonomous brigades in Algeria. Still, thereâs reason for concern. "There was no indication until now that this group was pursuing a wider jihadi agenda," said Evans, an expert on the Salafist group. The Salafistsâ actual strength is unknown, although experts believe the group is small, with several hundred fighters. Evans said Al Qaeda could call on the wider Algerian diaspora in Europe or militants with Salafist links "who might be prepared to attack Western targets.ââ Al Qaeda is known to have made inroads into Algeria. Interpol chief Ronald Nobel, who has noted the Salafist-Al Qaeda ties, visited Algeria a year ago to announce the international police agency would give Algeria a global communications system to track terrorists. As evidence of Al Qaedaâs presence in Algeria, authorities point to the killing of Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan, a Yemeni Al Qaeda lieutenant, on Sept. 12, 2002, in a gunbattle about 270 miles east of the capital, Algiers. Authorities said he had been meeting with the Salafists in Algeria and was managing operations for Al Qaeda in North Africa. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-03-10 |
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