According to local news reports, police shut down a recently opened
cybercafe and a bookstore that functioned as gathering places and communication
hubs for the network.
Analysts and journalists said El Oued, with a population of about 150,000, has a
long history of supporting radical causes and was a key stop on smuggling routes
into nearby Libya and Tunisia.
In early May, Algerian authorities discovered a makeshift guerrilla training
camp in a palm grove several miles outside El Oued.
According to the Algerian newspaper Liberte, police also recovered computer and
communications equipment, including disks containing the purported wills and
testaments of five Algerians who had been trained as suicide bombers.
Forensic evidence suggested that the five intended to stay in Algeria to carry
out their mission, Liberte reported, citing police sources. "Brainwashed
and well-trained, they have joined the terrorists in the field," the paper
reported.
In the past, U.S. and European officials said, it was much easier for
underground recruiters to persuade young Algerians to go to Iraq to battle U.S.
forces than to get them to stay home and take up arms against the government and
their fellow citizens. The Iraqi networks were also better financed than their
local counterparts, officials said.
By re-branding itself as an al-Qaeda affiliate, the Algerian group has boosted
its own fundraising and become more competitive in the marketplace for recruits,
Algerian analysts said.
Liess Boukra, an Algerian terrorism expert, called the recruitment business
"a real trade in cannon fodder."
"Indeed, it is possible that the recruiters for Iraq could redirect their
combatants toward new operations, either in Algeria or somewhere else in the
Maghreb or in the world," he said. "It depends on the nature of the
request and how much they're willing to pay." NEXT