Violence in Algeria blamed on armed Islamic groups has sharply declined this year as a result of the increasing efficiency of security forces and divisions among the fighters. Fewer than 900 people have been killed in violence led by or directed against the extremists, according to the sources, including 420 described as radical Islamic extremists. That compares with a total number of 1,400 deaths last year and 1,900 in 2001.
| In 2001 it looked like the turbans were killing everybody in sight. |
The decline has been particularly marked in the second half of this year, with fewer than 250 people killed since July, including 130 Islamists.
| It's nice to see that about half the corpses are bad guys. It makes it feel like something's being accomplished... |
More importantly for the government, there have been no major attacks reported in the capital and other major cities for more than a year. According to official figures, civil conflict in Algeria has cost more than 100,000 lives since 1992 when the army stepped in to prevent certain victory in legislative elections for the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which had vowed to set up an Islamic state. One security expert here said the decline could be attributed to the "permanent weakening" of the armed groups and their significant loss of manpower caused by army operations against their desert hideouts and security sweeps in the cities.
| I wonder how much of it can be attributed to the fact that operating in Europe is so much more comfortable than operating our around Fort Zinderneuf? |
At the same time, security forces have broken up the networks that supported the gunmen, while the radical groups themselves have fragmented. In addition, the government says that clemency plans in recent years, including a blanket amnesty to the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front in 1999, have taken thousands of fighters out of action. According to the chief of staff for the first army region, General Maiza, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which used to be the largest and best organized of the armed formations, has been split into at least three factions by internal rivalries. The GSPC’s main leader, Hassan Hattab, is confined to the predominantly Berber Kabylie region about 100 kilometers east of Algiers, while a new leader, Nabil Sahraoui alias Abu Ibrahim Mustafa, has emerged in the Tebessa region in the extreme east of the country. An ex-lieutenant of Hattab, known as Abderrezak the Para, who captured 32 European tourists early this year and released the last of them in the Mali desert in August, was last reported to be on the border between Algeria and Morocco and attempting to make his way north, according to Malian sources. A security source said that a large military force was in place to block Abderrezak’s group, which was reported to be the only armed radical unit operating in the Sahara.
| Making their way north wo where? Rotterdam? |
Elsewhere, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which is reputed to be the blood-thirstiest of the radical Islamic gangs in Algeria, is on its last legs and has only about 30 members, mostly in the Mitidja farming district near Algiers. An Algerian newspaper said last month that Rachid Abu Tourab, the leader of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was surrounded by troops and faced imminent capture. His predecessor, Antar Zouabri, was killed in February last year in a clash with the Algerian army.
However, dissident GIA elements, including one calling itself Defenders of Salafist Preaching, were reported to be active in western Algeria, where they have carried out a campaign of murdering defenseless people in isolated villages.
| How many groups can thirty guys break up into? I'd guess the upper limit would be 30... |
The GIA and GSPC are said to be the only two Islamic extremist groups still active in Algeria. |