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| Africa North |
| Algeria Hunts 15 Fugitives in Frenchman's Beheading |
| 2014-10-03 |
| [AnNahar] Algeria is hunting 15 suspects in the kidnapping and beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel on terrorism, kidnapping and murder charges, a judicial source said on Thursday. The runaways are all Algerians and include the head of Jund al-Khilifa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate," a group linked to Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... jihadists in Iraq and Syria, the source told Agence La Belle France-Presse. Abdelmalik Gouri, the 37-year-old head of the group, his right-hand man Abdallah Abou Meriem, and the 13 other suspects are believed to have joined myrmidon organizations during Algeria's civil war in the 1990s. Gourdel was seized by the group on September 21 while hiking in a national park in eastern Algeria. The 55-year-old mountain guide was beheaded in a video posted online last week, after La Belle France rejected the kidnappers' ultimatum to halt anti-IS air raids in Iraq. The investigation into Gourdel's murder is being handled by a special Algerian court that deals with organized crime and those linked to terrorism, while another probe is under way in La Belle France. On Wednesday Algeria said the suspects were identified during a preliminary probe. Jund al-Khilifa was formed at the end of August after splintering from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and pledging allegiance to IS. Experts say its members are former AQIM members like Gouri, who was the right-hand man 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..... |
| Posted by:trailing wife |