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| Africa North | |
| Algeria squashes Al Qaeda plan to attack U.S ships | |
| 2012-01-26 | |
| Algerian authorities have broken up an Al Qaeda plot to launch explosive-laden speedboats in suicide strikes on U.S. ships in the Mediterranean Sea, a U.S. official confirmed. The planned attack by North Africa's Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb mirrored the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors. "The U.S. was aware of the plot, which looks right now like it was in the early stages, but the Algerians deserve the credit for the arrests," said the U.S. official, who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity. Algerian newspaper Echorouk reported Tuesday that the three-person AQIM cell had purchased a boat with a powerful engine to be used in an attack. The group planned to strike U.S. and European vessels off the northeastern coast of Algeria, but the exact targets would be selected by the doomed attackers, Echorouk reported. The group's broader goals were media attention and paralysis of the Algerian economy, according to the newspaper. Algerian authorities uncovered the plot after reports that the cell's three members frequented internet cafes and viewed jihadist websites using phony names, Echorouk reported. The Al Qaeda affiliate has waged a guerilla war against Algeria's government for close to a decade, carrying out ambushes, bombings and kidnappings-for-ransom. In separate news, at a regional conference Tuesday, Malian Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga said there was a "confirmed link" between AQIM and Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... , Agence La Belle France-Presse reported.
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