Latest Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb Stories

Points to links, recruiting with other militants in region, including from Polisario-run camps WASHINGTON, March 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ (MACP) -- A new report on terrorism in North Africa warns of a new al-Qaeda hub for jihadi recruits and a potential launching pad for terrorist attacks much closer to US and European shores, along an "Arc of Instability" stretching across Africa's Sahara/Sahel region. The study, "Terrorism in North Africa & the Sahel in 2012: Global...

Al-Qaeda concerns grow as dozens in Polisario-run camps in Algeria reportedly join Qaeda-linked MUJAO WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ (MACP) -- Following a meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister Saad Dine El Otmani in Rabat Wednesday, Senator Joe Lieberman (CT) praised Morocco's peaceful model of political reform and urged speedy implementation of its autonomy initiative for Western Sahara, which he said was a "serious, credible, good, and realistic" proposal that...

$60 million ransom demanded for aid-workers & Algerian diplomats held in northern Mali WASHINGTON, May 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ (MACP) -- Today marks more than 200 days of captivity for Western aid-workers Rossella Urru of Italy and Ainhoa Fernandez de Rincon and Enric Gonyacons of Spain, kidnapped October 23 from the Polisario-run refugee camps near Tindouf in Algeria by an al-Qaeda offshoot, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), reportedly with...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new study by the International Center for Terrorism Studies (ICTS) warns that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) poses a "dangerous threat" to the region and beyond, as it seeks to exploit Arab Spring instability and expand terrorist ties to other militants across Africa's Sahel. The report recommends closing the Polisario Front's refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, which the study says "are a recruiting ground for...

A suicide bombing outside a police academy in Algeria left at least 43 people dead Tuesday, authorities said. Dozens more people were reported injured and the death toll could wind up higher, The Daily Telegraph reported. While no group had claimed responsibility, the attack resembled the previous works of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the British newspaper said. The blast in Issers, which occurred as dozens of young people lined up to take an entrance test, was the deadliest terrorist...

By Ibrahima Sylla NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritanian security services have rounded up dozens of suspected members and supporters of an al Qaeda-linked Islamic rebel group who were plotting attacks, security sources said on Friday. At least two of the detainees were suspected of involvement in a June 2005 raid on a remote military post which killed 15 Mauritanian soldiers while another was accused of belonging to an al Qaeda cell in Barcelona, Spain, the sources said. The arrests were...

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian rebels have threatened to strike U.S. military bases in north Africa and the Sub-Sahara region. "There are U.S. military bases in Mali, Niger and two others are to be constructed respectively in Mauritania and Algeria ... They should know (Americans and local governments) that we won't keep our arms crossed," a statement on the Internet said. The note was posted by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), Algeria's main rebel faction linked to...

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian troops stormed an Islamic rebel hideout on Wednesday and killed 10 guerrillas, the largest number shot dead by government forces since the country began an amnesty to end violence, state news agency APS said. Soldiers had besieged the rebels for a month in the rugged mountains of the Seddat area in Jijel province, some 230 km (140 miles) east of Algiers, before they took the hideout. APS did not say which rebel group the guerrillas belonged to, but Algerian...

By Lamine Ghanmi - Analysis RABAT (Reuters) - A U.S. drive to deepen anti-terror ties with North African nations needs to be balanced by greater concern for democracy and human rights in order to gain wide political acceptability in the region, analysts say. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, visiting Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco this month, heaped lavish praise on their cooperation in Washington's "war on terror" on his first tour of the strategic energy-rich region on Europe's...

By Lamine Ghanmi - Analysis RABAT (Reuters) - A U.S. drive to deepen anti-terror ties with North African nations needs to be balanced by greater concern for democracy and human rights in order to gain wide political acceptability in the region, analysts say. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, visiting Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco this month, heaped lavish praise on their cooperation in Washington's "war on terror" on his first tour of the strategic energy-rich region on Europe's...