An Algerian army patrol clashed with members of an Islamic militant group allied with al-Qaeda in the desert of northern Mali last week, killing at least 12 people, a senior Malian defence official said on Tuesday. The gunfight involving members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) took place north of the desert town of Tessalit, close to the Algerian border, in the early hours of June 30, the official said. "In the course of the clash, 12 people were killed and a helicopter was shot down," the official in Mali's capital Bamako said on condition of anonymity. It was unclear whether those killed were from the army or the rebel side. Algerian newspaper El Watan, citing Algerian security sources, said 13 GSPC members were killed and an army helicopter damaged. Algerian authorities declined to comment. Security sources in Algeria say the group is on its last legs although small, mobile and well-funded units are still seen as a threat to parts of northern Africa. A dawn raid on a remote Mauritanian military post on June 4, in which 15 soldiers were killed, raised fears that the group was expanding its operations in the desert region and surprised some observers who believed it had been largely contained. The attack in Mauritania came as the United States was conducting military training in countries around the Sahara to help stem weapons smuggling and stop militants finding havens in the region.
GSPC deputy head Amari Saifi, who is wanted in Germany for the kidnap of 32 European tourists in the desert in 2003, was sentenced in absence to life in prison in Algiers last month for helping to create a terrorist group. Algerian authorities say Saifi is in custody at an undisclosed location and under interrogation for other terrorism-related charges, but some local media question whether he really is in detention as he has not been shown in public.
| I wonder how much of GSPC the Algerians have succeeded in throwing out of the country, and where they're going to light. Mali doesn't seem to be impressed with the idea of having them, and Chad was a disaster. Mauritania didn't work well, and I think the locals threw rotted fruit and tarred and feathered them in Niger. What's left? Central African Republic? Darfur? |
| Wasn't there a report on some "North Africans" heading for Iraq? Maybe after the money al-Qaeda sent to GSPC with little to show for it, they have been called to pay their debts by sending cannon fodder there. |