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| Africa: North |
| 3 GSPC killed |
| 2004-06-28 |
| The Algerian army has killed three Islamic extremists, one of them an "emir" or leader, in a raid near the capital, Algiers, newspapers reported on Monday. Army soldiers on Saturday evening killed Ali Bournani, head of a "squadron" from Algeria’s biggest extremist group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), in the outback near Khemis El-Khechna, just southeast of Algiers, according to Le Jeune Independant newspaper. Shortly afterwards two members of the squadron led by Bournani were killed in the nearby town of Ouled Salem, reports said. All three were members of the GSPC’s Abou-Bakr Sedik squadron, which takes its name from one of the companions of the Prophet Mohammed. The GSPC on Sunday claimed responsibility for an explosion at the Hamma power station near Algiers. "The El-Borkane (volcano) phalange (of the GSPC) placed a lorry packed with explosives against the perimeter wall of the power station, which is considered to be the country’s most important and strategic electricity production facility," the GSPC said in a statement posted on its website. "The mujahedin tried to avoid loss of human life by reducing the explosive charge, which should have been bigger and destroyed the whole plant," said the statement, which was dated June 22 and signed by the GSPC’s "information committee". "This operation was one of a series of acts of harassment which, even if they are not 100% successful, will give the lie to fabrications (by the authorities) about things like control of the security situation, assurances for foreign investors and residues of terrorism," the GSPC said. Shortly after the explosion, Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said the blast was "apparently accidental," but newspapers speculated it was a revenge attack for the killing on June 18 of GSPC leader Nabil Sahraoui by the army. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |