| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Qaida Replaces North Africa Chief Slain in Mali |
| 2013-03-25 |
| [An Nahar] Al-Qaeda has named a replacement for Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, a key commander of its North African branch who was killed in fighting with French-led forces in northern Mali, Algerian TV reported on Sunday. The appointment of Djamel Okacha, a 34-year-old Algerian also known as Yahia Aboul Hammam, still has to be approved by a meeting of the leadership of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the head of Algeria's Ennahar TV, Mohamed Mokkedem, told Agence La Belle France Presse. Okacha is a close aide of AQIM chief Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.... and considered the "real leader" of the group, Mokkedem added. Okacha takes charge of the group's operations in both southern Algeria and northern Mali, where it had seized a vast swathe of territory last year but is now facing a massive counter-offensive by French-led troops. His predecessor Abou Zeid, 46, was credited with having significantly expanded the jihadist group's field of operation to Tunisia and Niger, and for kidnapping activities across the region. La Belle France confirmed on Saturday that Abou Zeid had been killed "during fighting led by the French army in the Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali in late February". "The elimination of one of the main leaders of AQIM marks an important stage in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel," the office of French President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... said. Okacha has had a meteoric rise in the group despite not having gone to Afghanistan as other key gun-hung tough guys such as Mokhtar Belmokhtar did. Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist leader who criminal masterminded an assault on an Algerian gas plant that left 37 foreign hostages dead in January, was reportedly killed by Chadian troops in Mali earlier this month. Okacha spent around 18 months in prison in Algeria in the 1990s when the country was mired in Islamist violence. As a member of feared Death Eater organizations the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb... (GPSC), which later became AQMI, he was active in northern Algeria, Mokeddem said. Born in the northern town of Reghaia he was later condemned to death by a court in southern Algeria for acts of terrorism. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 His was the only covering letter didn't enquire about the pension arrangements. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-03-25 18:02 |
| #1 OKACHA - AQ might as well declare defeat + give up the jihad in Mali! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-03-25 02:42 |