The second-in-command of the largest Islamic extremist movement in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), claimed responsibility Friday for the kidnapping of 32 European Sahara trekkers early this year. Amari Saifi, an Algerian Army renegade known as Abdel-Razak the âpara,â claimed in a statement published in Al-Khabar daily newspaper that the GSPC had abducted the tourists from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland as they were trekking without guides in Algeriaâs southern Sahara. Abdel-Razakâs statement, dated Aug. 18, announced that the last 14 hostages âwere released safe and sound ⊠through the good offices of regional leaders.â It contradicted Algiersâ claims that the 17 tourists freed in May had been sprung in an army raid, saying they had been âreleased by the mujahideen, not by Algerian forces.â The Algerian Army âdid everything possible — to eliminate the group, including the tourists, saying it wanted to free them — then told the world that it had allowed the mujahideen to escape to Mali, to protect the lives of the tourists.â Â
| Uhhh... That's what they were supposed to do. |
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