December 11, 2007
What Is Al-Qaida In The Islamic Maghreb?
It's too soon to know for sure, but indicators so far point to a North African Sunni terrorist group, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (QIM), as the culprit behind today's twin bombings that killed more than 60 people in Algiers. U.S. and European intelligence agencies have been tracking al-Qaida-affiliated groups in North Africa for some time because of well-founded fears that it will be the next frontier in the war against Islamic terrorism.
The current incarnation of QIM is not even a year old. In January, the Algeria-based Islamic extremist group Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials as GSPC, announced it was changing its name because its membership in al-Qaida had been formalized.
Washington counts Algeria's democratically elected government as an ally in the war on terror, and provides financial assistance [PDF] via the State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative. QIM counts Western-friendly Algiers as its enemy, and in May the group released an audio message telling Algerians that participation in this year's elections would make them "the traitors in this great sin" of their leaders' "tyranny and infidelity and their fight against religion." A series of bomb explosions apparently targeting the elections resulted in dismal turnout for the May 17 vote.
More attacks blamed on QIM followed: one in April that killed 33 people, according to the State Department, and one on July 11 that killed eight soldiers at a barracks. That today's attacks are also on the 11th may be another indicator of al-Qaida's involvement.
In July, (now outgoing) White House terrorism advisor Fran Townsend met with counterparts in Algeria, Libya and Morocco to discuss the ascendance of QIM. In a briefing with reporters that month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates described QIM as a "reasonably coherent organization" that had terrorist cells working with the larger al-Qaida network.
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration took a fresh look at Africa as a possible alternative energy source to the Middle East, but it increasingly has come to view the region as its next potential foreign policy migraine. The Pentagon has been quietly expanding its reach on the continent, and last month established a Unified Combatant Command that is to be completed by the end of 2008 (think Centcom, Pacom).
QIM's transformation earlier this year was more than a name change, counterterrorism experts believe. It may have signaled that the organization's mission had expanded beyond overthrowing the Algerian government to taking up the bloody banner of al-Qaida beyond its borders. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, QIM has already been linked to terrorist activity in France, Germany and the U.K.
The death toll from today's bombings has still not been confirmed, the New York Times reports. BBC News has a history of recent violence in Algeria, and the Times published a two-part series in February on al-Qaida's resurgence in Asia and North Africa.
Posted at 6:45 PM
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Africa, Al-Qaida, Bush Administration, Middle East, Military, Terrorism
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