| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa: North |
| Mokhtar Belmokhtar led GSPC attack |
| 2005-06-13 |
| The Mauritanian Army claims to have absolute proof that a radical Islamic group from neighboring Algeria was linked to a raid on a military post that killed 15 soldiers last weekend. At a news conference, military spokesman Colonel Alioune Ould Mohammad produced the Algerian registration document for a truck left at the scene on Wednesday. The document was in the name of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, alias Belaouar, said to be a former member of the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) now involved in cross-border smuggling and sought by the Algerian police. Ould Mohammad said two of Belmokhtar's top aides, Abd-Lekhdime and Abdel-Aziz, had been killed in the attack. "These two men are known to be under Belouar's thumb, never left him, and as a rule did not take part in combat, which proves that he himself directed this operation," he added. Ould Mohammad also said that a claim of ordering the attack attributed to the GSPC had been authenticated. Military sources said a widespread hunt for the raiders was still going on. Mauritanian Defense Minister Baba Ould Sidi announced last week that some 150 insurgents had attacked a military base in the remote northeastern Lemgheitty region, sparking a bloody confrontation that left 15 soldiers and five assailants dead and 17 wounded. A statement on the GSPC Web site said the attack, in which two soldiers were also abducted, was a reprisal for a crackdown against Islamist leaders in Mauritania begun in April. The government of President Maaouiya Ould Taya has accused the Islamists of links to the Salafists, who have known ties to the Al-Qaeda terror network. Mauritania's Islamist movement has denied the charges. Critics of the Taya government say the allegations of an Islamic security threat is merely a ruse to stifle dissent and to curry favor with the U.S. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |