Saturday, April 6, 2013

Key figures in al Qaeda's North African branch

 

Key figures in al Qaeda's North African branch

http://www.france24.com/en/20100924-key-figures-al-qaedas-north-african-branch

 

 

Unlike other al Qaeda affiliates, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has

few media stars. But al Qaeda's western front is gaining in notoriety,

making it imperative to understand who’s who in the terror group.

By Leela JACINTO (text)

 

One of the most overlooked al Qaeda regional affiliates, al Qaeda’s North

African branch shot into the international spotlight on January 16, 2013,

when the group claimed responsibility for the deadly hostage-taking at

Algeria’s remote In Amenas gas facility.

 

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was officially launched in 2006.

“Maghreb” is the Arabic term literally meaning “land of the sunset” or the

West and refers to the Western-most outpost of the Arab world, a loosely

defined region stretching across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and

the remote transition belt between the Sahara desert and the African

savannah called the Sahel.

 

A hostile, forbidding terrain that straddles national borders, the Sahel has

historically been Africa’s badlands, affording shelter to smugglers,

traffickers, insurgents and militants of various stripes.

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The chronic political instability in impoverished West African nations such

as Niger, Mali and Mauritania make it a militant haven. The region is

sometimes described as having “a coup here, a coup there and cocaine and

militants everywhere”.

 

Following the March 22, 2012, military coup in Mali - which precipitated the

fall of northern Mali to a motley mix of militant groups - AQIM strengthened

its presence in the West African nation. Months later, as Islamists began to

push into central Malian towns, France responded to a call for assistance by

the Malian government, launching a military operation on January 11, 2013.

 

Before the French military operation in Mali and the Algerian

hostage-taking, AQIM was primarily known in international counter-terror

circles as the group responsible for the kidnapping of mainly European

nationals in the Sahel and the executions of British tourist Edwin Dyer and

French aid worker Michel Germaneau.

 

AQIM though, was primarily considered a regional threat. But the deadly

Algerian hostage-taking changed that.

 

So who are the men behind these attacks?

 

AQIM was born out of the remnants of Algerian Islamist groups that waged a

bloody insurgency against the Algerian security services in the 1990s. The

big move came in 2006 when the Algerian group, the Salafist Group for

Preaching and Combat (known by its French acronym GSPC) officially declared

its merger with al Qaeda to become the terror group’s North African

affiliate.

 

Divided into “katibas” or brigades, AQIM is basically a clustered movement

of different militant cells, many of them autonomously funded and run.

 

Here is a look at some key AQIM figures:

 

The ‘emir’: Abdelmalek Droukdel

Aliases: Abu Musab Abdul Wadoud

 

With his flowing dark beard and penetrating eyes beneath a securely tied

turban, Droukdel is the best-known face of al Qaeda’s North African branch.

Abdelmalek Droukdel: The supremo

 

A university mathematics graduate, he shot into international fame following

his July 2008 interview with The New York Times, which was accompanied by

photographs of the AQIM chief wading through streams in the lush woodlands

of eastern Algeria.

 

Born in 1970 in the northern Algerian town of Meftah, Droukdel is believed

to have fought in the Afghan civil war as a young man. An explosives expert,

he returned to his native Algeria where he joined the GSPC, a splinter of

the Armed Islamic Group or GIA.

 

He shot into prominence following the March 2004 capture of one of the

GSPC's top leaders, the charismatic Amari Saifi, also known as “El Para”

since he had trained as an Algerian paratrooper.

 

According to The New York Times, following El Para’s capture, Droukdel

contacted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then leader of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, to

enquire if Zarqawi could capture French citizens to trade for El Para’s

release.

 

He played a critical role in merging the GSPC with al Qaeda to form AQIM.

 

Based in the AQIM’s so-called northern zone, Droukdel is the 'emir' or

supreme leader of the group. But given the vast terrain of AQIM operations

and the relative autonomy of various katibas, Droukdel’s operational control

of the outfit is probably minimal.

 

The 'one-eyed one': Mokhtar Belmokhtar

Aliases: Khaled Abu al-Abbas, Laâouar ("one-eyed" in Arabic), Mr. Marlboro

 

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist believed to be one of the

masterminds behind a brazen attack on an Algerian gas field in January 2013,

was branded "the Uncatchable" – until March 3, 2013, when Chad’s President

announced he had been killed in the mountainous far north of Mali. A

Mauritanian news agency said he was killed in a French air strike.

 

But France has not confirmed his death and many analysts remain sceptical,

noting that Belmokhtar has extensive knowledge of the terrain, which would

have enabled him to flee northern Mali before the French offensive. Jihadist

sites have also refuted reports that Belmokhtar was killed.

 

Born in 1972 in Ghardaia, Algeria, Belmokhtar is an alumnus of al Qaeda's

Afghan training camps at Khalden and Jalalabad as well as a veteran of

Algeria's jihadist violence during the 1990s.

 

In an interview published on a jihadist website, Belmokhtar said he went to

Afghanistan in 1989 to train in the terror camps and get combat experience

in the Afghan mujahideen conflict following the 1989 Soviet withdrawal.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar: Mr. Marlboro

 

He returned to his native Algeria in the mid-1990s, where he joined the GIA.

Belmokhtar was one of the founders of the GSPC, when the group splintered

from the GIA.

 

Nicknamed laâouar, or one-eyed, after he lost an eye handling explosives,

Belmokhtar has been known to have extensive kidnapping and smuggling links,

earning him the nickname “Mr. Marlboro”.

 

According to former UN envoy Robert Fowler, who was kidnapped and held

hostage by Belmokhtar’s group for four months, the one-eyed militant was

professional, business-like, not given to proselytizing speeches and

respected by his men.

 

But Belmokhtar faced difficulty rising in official jihadist ranks. In 2003,

he was passed over in the GSPC leadership struggle and when the group

announced its allegiance with al Qaeda in September 2006, it was Droukdel

who was declared the emir.

 

By some accounts, Belmokhtar ran into a similar tussle in late 2012, when

Droukdel appointed Yahya Abou El Hammam [see profile below] as emir of the

Katibat el Moulathamoune – or The Turbaned Ones in Arabic.

 

Following the reshuffle, Belmokhtar went on to form a new combat unit,

al-Mouwakoune bi-Dimaa (“Those Who Sign with Blood”). The name of the new

battalion is a reference to the GIA detachment responsible for the 1994

hijacking of an Air France flight.

 

On January 16, 2013, when Belmokhtar released a video claiming the Algerian

gas plant attack was a response to the French military operation in Mali, it

caused considerable confusion in some media reports over whether

Belmokhtar’s combat unit was a part of The Turbaned Ones. Some reports even

questioned the group’s al Qaeda links.

 

In reality, the links between different katibas and units are often loose

and based on personal ties forged between militants.

 

There is little doubt though that the various units view themselves as

regional arms of al Qaeda central command. Some of the documents retrieved

by US Navy Seals at the Abbottabad house where Osama bin Laden was killed

revealed extensive correspondence between AQIM and al Qaeda central command

leaders.

 

The ‘hardliner’: Abdelhamid Abou Zeid

Aliases: Abid Hammadou

Leader of “Tareq Ibn Ziayd” or “El Fatihine” katiba

 

One of the most dreaded leaders of al Qaeda’s North African branch, Algerian

national Abou Zeid was killed in a French military operation in the remote

Ifoghas Mountains of northern Mali in February 2013.

 

His killing marked a milestone in the French military operation in Mali,

which was launched in January 2013 after Malian authorities issued a call

for intervention following a southward advance by Islamist militants who had

seized northern Mali.

 

Abou Zeid’s death was first reported by an Algerian TV station. But it was

not until March 23, 2013, following DNA tests, that French President

François Hollande confirmed his death.

 

Before his death, Abou Zeid headed the “Tareq Ibn Ziayd” or “El Fatihine”

katiba, one of the most radical AQIM branches responsible for the execution

of British tourist Edwin Dyer in 2009 and French aid worker Michel Germaneau

in July 2010.

 

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His group is believed to be behind the 2010 abduction of five French nuclear

and construction workers in northern Niger.

 

In an interview with the French weekly magazine Jeune Afrique, Pierre

Camatte, a former hostage, described Abou Zeid as a “tiny, rickety man with

a goatee in his ‘50s”.

 

Camatte was released in February 2010 after three months of detention. But

Abou Zeid’s other captives have not been as lucky.

 

Born in the Algerian town of Touggourt, located about 600 km south of

Algiers in the Algerian Sahara, he was a member of FIS, the Algerian Islamic

party that was denied an election victory in the early 1990s, triggering the

brutal Algerian civil war.

 

He later joined the GSPC where he served under Mokhtar Belmokthar before

rising up the insurgent ranks.

 

Experts say that Abou Zeid, unlike Droukdel, was not very well-educated and

did not speak the erudite Arabic of many respected al Qaeda figures. But

what made him more dangerous, according to French counter-terror experts,

was his ambition and his need to distinguish himself to al Qaeda central

command leaders in Pakistan.

 

The new commander: Djamal Okacha

Alias: Yahia Abou el Hammam

 

An Algerian national, Djamal Okacha was born in the northern Algerian town

of Reghaia and is a close associate of Droukdel. While his real name is

Djamal Okacha, he’s better known in jihadist circles by his nom de guerre,

Yahia Abou el Hammam.

 

Believed to be in his mid-30s, Okacha is part of a younger generation of

senior AQIM figures. Unlike Belmokhtar, he was not trained in the Afghan

jihadist camps, nor was he a member of the GIA. But that has not stopped his

meteoric rise to AQIM’s top ranks.

 

In March 2013, he was named as the replacement for Abou Zeid, who was killed

in a French military operation in northern Mali, according to Algerian media

reports citing Algerian security sources.

 

Before this appointment, Okacha served as Abou Zeid’s deputy, during which

time he proved to be an able commander and administrator. He is also

believed to have excellent knowledge of the southern stretches of the Sahel

around northern Mali – a factor that analysts believe led to his promotion

as Abou Zeid’s replacement. According to some analysts, Okacha has good

religious training and served as a qadi (judge) in the old GSPC.

 

During the 1990s civil war, Okacha served 18 months in an Algerian prison.

Following his release, he joined the GSPC and by the time the group merged

with al Qaeda, Hammam had climbed up the ranks, becoming Abou Zeid’s deputy.

 

As Abou Zeid’s number two, he is believed to have conducted Germaneau’s

execution, a killing that sent shock waves across France.

 

According to Algerian security sources, Okacha was involved in the 2005

attack against the Lemgheity military barracks in Mauritania, which killed

17 Mauritanian soldiers. The attack – which occurred before AQIM was founded

– marked a turning point for the GSPC since it was the first assault outside

Algerian territory. He is also suspected of involvement in the 2009 killing

of US aid worker Christopher Leggett, who was shot dead near an English and

computer school he was heading in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.

 

Following the March 2012 military coup in Mali, Mauritanian news

organizations reported that Okacha was operating around the northern Malian

city of Timbuktu.

 

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