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Jimbo
19 March 2007, 10:45
So what's the deal? Why are the Taured fighting the GSPC? Is it territorial (hahaha)? Is it protection of smuggling routes? Is it something less aparent?


Blood on the Sand
October 27, 2006: Now Algerian Islamic terrorists are fighting turf battles with tribes in adjacent nations. This month, about a dozen Algerian Islamic terrorists and Tuareg tribesmen have been killed in skirmishes in neighboring Mali. While Algerian Islamic terrorists have been defeated, there are nearly a thousand of them still active inside Algeria and adjacent countries. Many have set up camps in nations adjoining Algerias southern border, which is in the Sahara desert. Here, there are long borders with Mali (1,376 kilometers), Mauritania (463 kilometers, and Niger (956 kilometers). American Special Forces have been training troops in some of these adjacent countries, on counter-terrorism techniques, and how to more effectively patrol these long borders.



In Mali, the Algerian GSPC terrorists have been feuding with Tuaregs tribesmen belonging to the Democratic Alliance for Change (DAC), a former rebel group which is no longer at war with the Mali government, but is still around as a political organization. The DAC and GSPC have been shooting at each other, and each death generates a retaliatory attacks. The Tuaregs are related to the Berber peoples of North Africa, who are thought to be a branch of the same people who lived in ancient Egypt. The Tuaregs and Arabs don't get along, which is one of the causes of the battles with the GSPC groups who have moved into the border area. Another cause is the GSPC being labeled a terrorist group by the United States. The Tuaregs noted the U.S. providing assistance to the Mali armed forces, and did not want to be tagged as allies of Islamic terrorists.



October 12, 2006: An FIS politician was shot dead in the capital. This appears to be a deliberate attack, and may indicate a feud within the FIS, which is an Islamic conservative group that has made peace with the government. In the past, radical factions split off from the FIS, to become Islamic terrorists.



September 21, 2006: The merger of the Algerian Islamic terrorist group GSPC, into al Qaeda, now provides GSPC more resources in exile, while providing al Qaeda with hundreds of experienced terrorists. Thousands of GSPC operatives have fled Algeria for refuge in Europe and North America. While most have given up Islamic terrorism, some have not. Increasingly, counter-terrorism operations are coming across Algerians.

Jedburgh
19 March 2007, 15:15
Decent paper published last month (Feb 07) by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:

Islamist Terrorism in Northwestern Africa: A 'Thorn in the Neck' of the United States? (http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/download.php?file=PolicyFocus65.pdf)
...Within Algeria the GSPC has effectively split into two main groupings of militants, one of which operates in the north and is led at least nominally by Abdelmalek Droukdal. The second is based primarily in the stretch of the Sahara desert that encompasses southern Algeria, northern Mali, and Mauritania. These two major groupings are themselves splintering further under pressure from the regime’s counterterrorism campaign. The northern grouping is more geographically constrained by Algerian security forces than is the southern cell, and its activities are largely confined to Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzou. The northern grouping funds itself primarily through kidnap for ransom and armed robbery. Its members frequently set up false roadblocks to intercept civilians and occasionally Algerian soldiers, whom they rob and murder. They also periodically engage in random small-scale massacres of civilians.

The southern grouping was until recently led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Afghan-trained militant who, with Ammar Saifi (also known as El Para), masterminded the GSPC’s exploitation of the Sahara’s conducive operating environment. Belmokhtar had family connections in the region and was able to capitalize on the myriad criminal opportunities there, particularly smuggling. The southern GSPC grouping traffics cigarettes and marijuana as well as innocuous items, such as government-subsidized household goods for resale in north-central Africa. It also engages in “Islamic policing” of traditional trade routes, demanding protection money from smugglers who use the routes and occasionally confiscating and reselling items deemed un-Islamic. These activities have led the southern grouping to travel into Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and possibly as far east as Sudan. Intelligence officials believe the southern grouping is periodically able to smuggle weapons and other materiel to the northern cell, blending in with the enormous flow of illicit goods to northern Algeria....

Jimbo
19 March 2007, 15:17
Thanks, Jedburgh.

Crisis group has a pretty good overall paper as well: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3349

peter28
19 March 2007, 20:05
Decent paper published last month (Feb 07) by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:

Islamist Terrorism in Northwestern Africa: A 'Thorn in the Neck' of the United States? (http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/download.php?file=PolicyFocus65.pdf)

great, WINEP is being quoted on a SOF forum. Emily Hunt, well what can I say...she's a hottie with a body, cutie with a booty, and I would have hit on her more brazenly had I made 6 figures:D but seriously, smart chick...did I mention she was good looking. she would talk about al qaeda or al sharpton, or some shit like that, and I dont think anyone really listened...except me!