| Libyan security forces arrested members of a terror cell that planned attacks on Western interests in Africa while hiding out in the Sahara Desert, a French news report said Sunday. Several members of Algeria’s Salafist Group for Call and Combat were caught in late June at Libya’s border with Chad, the report in Le Journal du Dimanche said. The militants captured by Libya allegedly provided information about a Salafist base in Chad’s Tibesti region, a remote, mountainous area of the Sahara. The group used the base to plan attacks against Western interests on African soil. Militants were recruited from throughout the region and trained to use sophisticated explosives. Another Salafist leader, Amari Saifi, was captured weeks ago by a rebel group in Chad. Le Journal du Dimanche reported that his release had been secured for $246 000, without specifying who paid the ransom. However, an official with a country involved in the situation told The Associated Press that as of Saturday, a deal was believed in the works for the rebels to turn Saifi over to Libya, which in turn would hand him to Algeria, for a reported sum of $616 000. |