| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Algeria dismantles Mali terror cell |
| 2013-03-13 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] Algerian security services on Saturday (March 9th) broke up an al-Qaeda terror cell in the town of Bordj Badji Mokthar along the Mali border, Echorouk reported. Seven people, including two Malians, were tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! for facilitating the infiltration of a number of snuffies who fled the war in northern Mali. An eighth suspect reportedly managed to flee to Mali. The Algerian security authorities and army forces stepped up their movements along the southern border in the last few weeks to prevent forces of Evil fleeing the battles in northern Mali from infiltrating into Algeria. These security measures have helped the authorities arrest a number of snuffies as they tried to cross into Algerian soil. The latest security operation was carried out by an Algerian army unit in the wilaya of Tamanrasset. The newspaper said that authorities "monitored communications that the group had with terrorist organizations". It added that the suspects belong to al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and used Bordj Badji Mokhtar, located along north-eastern Mali frontier near the Ifoghas Mountains, as their headquarters. The mountainous area had become a last refuge for al-Qaeda-linked snuffies fleeing a French and African military intervention in Mali. The task of the group was to provide information and take pictures of movements of the Algerian army that has intensified its presence in border areas with Mali since the start of war on Islamist groups last January. The cell members were reportedly preparing to facilitate the "infiltration of a number of snuffies who fled the hell of battles in northern Mali to Algerian soil". It said that a large number of the snuffies in northern Mali hail from southern Algeria, especially Adrar, Tamanrasset, Illizi and El-Meneaa in Ghardaia province. At the terrorist cell's headquarters, the Algerian security forces seized Thuraya satellite phones, communication devices, advanced night-vision goggles, and two all-terrain vehicles, which had been under surveillance for a while by the security forces. The vehicles were reportedly used by the suspects in their movements between Bordj Badji Mokhtar and Tamanrasset. Leaders of AQIM and Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) work through middlemen in southern areas in recruiting support elements, taking advantage of sympathy with the jihadist groups. Others work with the "Movement of the Sons of the Sahara for Islamic Justice" that was led by Mohamed el-Amine Bencheneb, who was killed by the Algerian army forces during the attack on the gas plant in In Amenas. These groups seek to re-form the cells in the south after the security authorities dismantled many of these networks following the terrorist attacks on national gendarmerie headquarters in Ouargla and Tamanrasset last year. |
| Posted by:Fred |