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| Africa: North |
| GSPC planning to kidnap French to get el-Para sprung |
| 2005-07-12 |
| The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Algerian Islamist group, is planning to kidnap French nationals to force the release of its leader Abderrezak Le Para, currently jailed in Algeria. According to Christophe Chaboud, head of the Antiterrorist Coordination Unit, the kidnapping of French nationals to exchange them for "the GSPC emir" was suggested to the Algerian Islamists by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "We have evidence of an exchange of mail and communications between al-Zarqawi in Iraq and the GSPC," Chaboud told the French daily Le Monde. "France, which has always been regarded as an ally of the Algerian regime, is a priority target in their global jihad," the French police officer explained. He warned of GSPC actions in sub-Saharan Africa, blaming the Algerian Islamists for last June`s attack against a military barracks in southern Mauritania. "We know that the GSPC conducted last June a deadly operation in Mauritania and is trying to develop at regional level, across sub-Saharan Africa, but also in France," Chaboud added. Paris has decided to beef up security measures since the terrorist attacks which killed more than 50 people in London. Soldiers, policemen and gendarmes are now patrolling French railway stations and airports, while other security personnel carry out selective search operations on vehicles and identity checks. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |