Al-Qaeda has rapidly extended its influence across North Africa by aiding
and organizing local groups that are demonstrating a renewed ability to launch
terrorist attacks in the region, such as the triple suicide bombings that killed
33 people here last month, according to counterterrorism officials and analysts.
The bombers who struck the Government Palace and a police station in Algiers,
the capital, are believed to have been local residents. But Algerian authorities
are examining evidence that the bombers were siphoned from recruiting pipelines
that have sent hundreds of North African fighters to Iraq and perhaps were
trained by veterans of the Iraqi insurgency, U.S. and European intelligence
officials said.
The April 11 attacks were the first suicide bombings in this war-torn
country in more than a decade and the worst strike in Algiers in several years.
In terms of tactics and targets, however, they mirrored scores of recent
bombings in Iraq, right down to the photos of the three "martyrs"
posted on the Internet hours later by a group claiming to act on behalf of
al-Qaeda.
The bombings in Algiers have coincided with a renewed crackdown against the
Iraqi recruiting networks across North Africa. Last month, Algerian police broke
up a long-standing ring based in the Saharan desert city of El Oued that had
sent an estimated 60 men to Iraq to fight. In neighboring Morocco, authorities
said they have disrupted three similar networks since late last year.
According to intelligence officials in Europe, more than 100 Algerians are in
prison here after being detained on their way to Iraq or upon their return,
adding to worries that the far-off conflict is breeding battle-hardened fighters
who could come back to haunt North Africa or nearby Europe.
"Al-Qaeda's presence in North Africa is a reality," Baltasar Garzon, a
senior Spanish magistrate, said in an interview Saturday at a conference in
Italy organized by the Center on Law and Security at the New York University
School of Law. "It's an ideal base from which to engage in actions against
Europe. . . . Moving their next phase of action to Europe, I think, is just a
matter of time."
Hamida Ayachi, editor of the Algiers-based daily Djazair News, said
organizational links between insurgents in Iraq and armed groups in North Africa
have strengthened noticeably in the past year.
"Iraq became a big laboratory to train kamikazes and warriors," Ayachi,
the author of a forthcoming book on extremist networks, said in an interview in
Algiers. "They are trying to take young people from here to Iraq for
training so they can use them later in North Africa. Likewise, they are training
people here in the mountains and the desert. Algeria has already become a small
Iraq for training these people."
The April 11 bombings in Algiers, along with other recent attacks in the
country, are evidence that al-Qaeda's network in North Africa has developed into
a more serious threat and is benefiting from lessons learned in Iraq, said a
senior military official at the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany,
which oversees operations in Africa.
"Their tactics have definitely increased in sophistication," said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing
intelligence matters. "Are they getting the technical expertise from the
outside? We can't prove it, can't disprove it. But I would strongly suspect they
are."
Earlier attacks had also reflected a change in tactics. On Oct. 30, Islamic
radicals carried out simultaneous truck bomb attacks on two police stations
outside Algiers. The coordination of the twin attacks was unusual. Also strange
was the fact that the attacks occurred at midnight, timing that contributed to
the low casualty count: three people killed.
Early Feb. 13, the network struck again, this time bombing seven police stations
simultaneously. Once again, casualties were few, with six dead.
Although Algerian officials puzzled over the timing and nature of the
attacks, in retrospect it became clear that they were dress rehearsals for the
more ambitious April 11 bombings, said Mounir Boudjema, editor of the newspaper
Liberte and an expert on Algerian terrorist groups.
"This was an inspiration coming from al-Qaeda techniques," Boudjema
said. "All this was to prepare for the main operation on April 11. They
were clearly preparing for this strike for a long time."
The April 11 attacks were carried out by the group al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, a local affiliate of Osama bin Laden's global network. Maghreb is an
Arabic word for the region of North Africa stretching from Mauritania to Libya.
For most of its decade-long existence, the group had been an independent
movement dedicated to overthrowing the Algerian government, with little interest
in external affairs.
That began to change in 2003, however, as the Algerians saw potential benefits
from an association with al-Qaeda and its declared holy war in Iraq.
Such alliances have become increasingly common among radical Islamic groups.
Since the invasion of Iraq, local networks with "al-Qaeda" appended to
their names have surfaced in at least 12 countries.
Although relations with al-Qaeda's core command are usually loose or
nonexistent, counterterrorism officials said, the affiliates have exploited the
insurgency in Iraq and other al-Qaeda plots to boost their own fundraising and
recruitment.
Those responsible for last month's explosions in Algiers also copied propaganda
tactics developed by al-Qaeda forces in Iraq. In addition to the Internet
posting asserting responsibility, the Algerian group later sent a video
depicting preparations for the attacks to al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language
satellite television network.
Christophe Chaboud, chief of the French Interior Ministry's anti-terrorism
coordination unit, said that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was mimicking the
strategy followed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian fighter whose network
of foreign militants in Iraq allied itself with al-Qaeda and later adopted its
name. Zarqawi was killed in Iraq last June by U.S. forces.
Chaboud noted the striking similarities between the primary target of the April
11 attacks -- the Government Palace in Algiers, a well-protected building
housing the offices of the prime minister and the Interior Ministry -- and an
al-Qaeda strike the next day on the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, located in the
heavily fortified Green Zone.
"It's a way to demonstrate to al-Qaeda that they are meeting the challenge
of allegiance," Chaboud said in an interview in Paris. "They are
saying al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb can be what Zarqawi was in Iraq."
Intelligence officials and analysts said that the Algerian al-Qaeda branch, in
an effort to rejuvenate its ranks, has tried to tap into independent recruiting
networks that have sent a steady flow of North Africans to Iraq to fight. For
instance, since the April 11 attacks, Algerian security services have arrested
17 suspected members of an Iraqi recruiting ring based in El Oued, a Saharan
oasis known as the "city of a thousand domes" for its unusual desert
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