Islamist activity in the Sahara in relation to travel security

[priffe]

More mauri boys giving themselves up
Magharebia.com

The Mauritanian nationals fled a Mali AQIM camp to benefit from new amnesty measures endorsed by the Nouakchott anti-terror policy forum. Earlier in November, Mauritania declined to press charges against another young Mauritanian who fled a terrorist training camp in Mali and surrendered in Timbedra

[Dave The Hat]

Algeria hopes to halt a decline in tourism due to concerns over security

Algeria seeks to halt Sahel tourism decline (Magharebia.com)

[priffe]

Keenan again, in defense of tuaregs
The tribulations of the Tuareg - Briefings - Al Jazeera English

mauritanian deserter appears on television denouncing aqim
شاب موريتاني عائد من معسكرات القاعدة يروي قصته مع السلفية وعودته الطواعية الى بلاده
in arabic

[Richard Washington]

28 members of al-Qaeda's North African branch have defected from the group and have surrendered to the Mauritanian army.

28 boys from the ages of 14 to 22 on Sunday left al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb in northern Mali.

28 defect from al-Qaeda group: News24: Africa: News

All in all, I think we are witnessing the first serious/successful push-back phase against AQIM since they took to the desert in 2003.

[Dave The Hat]

Ennahar Online - The terrorist leader Abu Djaffar shot dead

[jonathanhfxns]

Found on the Guardian in a couple of minutes.

Nothing unexpected, but I've just made the briefest skim.

There cannot be too much up yet- nothing at all on Canada for instance.

US embassy cables: Washington launches intelligence trawl in West Sahara states | World news | guardian.co.uk

[priffe]

There may well be some interesting info on Aqim and not least on Algeria in the leaked cables.
Ennahar Online - The CIA reveals secrets on the Islamic Salvation Front

Abu Zeid appears in a new video Vidéo Exclusif : la première vidéo d'Abou Zeid, le ravisseur des otages français de LCIWAT (Actualité - LCIWAT) - wat.tv
Ennahar Online - Abu Zeid appears on a video

'The terrorist leader was wearing a watch he kept fiddling all the time; he had his head down and did have neither the look nor the stature of a leader.
The video, broadcast by the French channel, confirms what was reported by repentant terrorists who had met and known him. All called him a "tramp", especially the Mauritanian, for his bad habits and lack of personality.
The video, according to experts, is recently filmed, probably this year, Abu Zeid and his men seemed to ignore that they had been filmed. It was the work of a repentant terrorists who brought it with him.
In this video we could see between twenty and thirty terrorist training on weapons in the Sahara. Among these terrorists, a boy not exceeding 16, talking of jihad.
You could also see very clearly the faces of some terrorist, black, from the region.'

[Ulrich]

Some interesting cables from the US embassy in Algiers...

Cable Viewer

Cable Viewer

Cable Viewer

http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/12/09ALGIERS1077.html

http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/12/09ALGIERS1162.html

Cable Viewer

http://213.251.145.96/cable/2010/01/10ALGIERS39.html

... and Bamako

http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/12/09BAMAKO776.html

http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/12/09BAMAKO815.html

found at WikiLeaks

Regards

Ulrich

[jonathanhfxns]

Malian and Algy governments don't like each other very much; US electronic surveillance over flights; US/Mali troop training details.

(plus the inclusion of Montreal to receive Algerian news- which stands out quite badly for a Canadian)


It's a little more useful than the same old foreign office warnings.

[manfredschweda]

The fuzzy geography of terrorism in West Africa
http://www.ceps.lu/pdf/3/art1577.pdf
This just came round through Twitter
Maybe someone interested

[subaculture]

Decent interview based article in the Irish Times (Dec 11, 2010) -

Al-Qaeda's new front: terrorism meets crime in a lawless north African desert

Al-Qaeda's new front: terrorism meets crime in a lawless north African desert - The Irish Times - Sat, Dec 11, 2010

The no-go area now includes Timbuktu and all the most popular tourist destinations. Some foreign analysts suggest that Paris may be trying to cut off the tourist industry to exert political pressure on the Malian government, but others say the new warning was based on firm intelligence that Aqim was looking for hostages farther south.

[priffe]

I think that interview was rather flawed for instance they had the geography wrong.

Anyway, Mali made several arrests with suggested links to Polisario. From many sources.
Should we give it more credit coming from Malian or Mauri sources with no obvious connection to the Moroccan propaganda machine?
.:Middle East Online �:.
"On Thursday we arrested six major drug traffickers in the Sahara who were associates of the traffickers arrested on Tuesday by the Mauritanian army," the security source said.
She said the men come from the ranks of the Polisario Front which is fighting for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco.
They were part of "one of the three major networks of traffickers who pass through the Sahara and sell the drugs to Europe," she said.
The Mauritanian army said on Wednesday it had killed two men and captured seven during a raid on a band of drug traffickers on the eastern Mauritanian border with Mali on Tuesday."
AfricaNews - Mali: arrest of narcotics barons linked to AQIM - The AfricaNews articles of rubakana
"The ringleader, a senior in the Sahrawi Polisario leadership Front is Sultan Ould Bady, the leader of the "third largest drug trafficking ring in the direction of Europe" and would also directly involved kidnappings of foreigners in the Sahel perpetrated by Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)."
AFP: Six 'major' drug traffickers arrested in Mali

Some more from a Spanish site
Kidnapping, drug trafficking dominate AQIM crimes, analysts say

On Dec. 6, the Mauritanian army clashed with a group of drug traffickers linked to the terrorist group. Several traffickers were killed and many more arrested during the operation. Significant quantities of arms, ammunition, drugs, phones and vehicles were seized. According to reports, a Malian drug baron wanted by several countries was also captured during the operation.

A similar Mauritanian army raid at the end of February left three suspected drug traffickers dead, while 20 others were placed in custody. The Mauritanian, Malian and Algerian suspects were reportedly carting drugs in off-road vehicles and a small truck when the fight erupted in Lemzarrab, near the Malian border.

In northern Niger, the French hostage crisis drags into its fourth month, with AQIM using the hostages to blackmail France into paying a ransom. The group is reportedly demanding €7 million (US$9.286 million).

In addition, last month Moroccan authorities announced they dismantled a suspected 36-person al-Qaeda affiliated gang that included four foreigners. They allegedly were involved in smuggling and drug trafficking. A security source declared that the group smuggled cocaine eight times from northern Mali to Europe across Morocco and Algeria. The amount of cocaine smuggled was estimated at 600 kilograms (1,322 pounds).
...
“the overlap of organised crime and terrorism has reached a point where we can emphasise that al-Qaeda no longer relies on crime to finance terrorism. Now, terrorism is used as a cover-up for crime, the sole purpose of which is to make a fortune.”

[Dave The Hat]

BBC News - Blast strikes French embassy in Mali

[priffe]

Originally Posted by Dave The Hat

BBC News - Blast strikes French embassy in Mali

Even in Bamako....but didn't this attack seem ill conceived and rather desperate?
One man with a gun and a grenade. Two pedestrians injured. A very similar attack was launched against the French embassy in Nouakchott in August, 2009.

Meanwhile the Moroccans arrested 27 belonging to a cell in Amghala, West Sahara. http://www.echoroukonline.com/eng/wo...o-algeria.html

And Algeria is launching a large scale offensive against Aqim strongholds in Kabylia Shimron Letters: Algerian Offensive Against AQIM Underway
They are said to have them surrounded and expect it to last a month or so.

[jonathanhfxns]

Algerian forces attack allies of al-Qaida | World news | Guardian Weekly

A little more of the same on the northern AQIM roundup operation.


Algerian riots resume over food prices | World news | The Guardian

This seems to be much more than the usual low scale stuff that seems to be in the papers there everyday: much more sustained, in more places and with more people. Belcourt and Bab El Oued are basically downtown Algier- on the water to the southeast and northwest of the centre and port, to make it relevant on here. Hopefully if anybody is driving they already have a guide.