The Independent (Banjul)
15 October 2004
analysis
Banjul — For some time, the security services of the Sahel countries and international experts in counter terrorism have theorized that, with the loss of Afghanistan, al-Qaeda could well turn to the Sahara Desert for its next home base.
That theory became reality when Libyan authorities discovered in June that the al-Qaeda-linked Algerian terrorist organization known as GSPC, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat had established a "Sahara Brigade, " a base of operations in the Tibesti Mountains. The Tibesti Mountains are in that remote part of the Sahara that lies in northern Chad.
Even before Libyan security services learned of the GSPC base in northern Chad, the terrorist threat in the Sahara -the soft spot of Africa -was real. Established by Hassan Hat tab, GSPC had its origin in the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and has as many as 3,000 fighters. Most of them were trained at al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and have sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. Those fighters have reportedly suggested to al-Qaeda that because of the collapse of the Taliban and the loss of Afghanistan, the group should make the Sahara its new base.
One of the goals of GSPC in the Tabesti Mountains has been to recruit volunteers from Chad, Sudan, Libya, Mali and Mauritania and group them around the Sahara Brigade, the hard core of Algerian GSPC members, who will train them, including in the use of explosives.
The recruitment of black radical Muslims from sub-Saharan Africa is of particular importance, because terrorists of Arab or Northern African origin have become increasingly easy to spot by Western secret services.
One of GSPC's strategies has been to carry out terrorist operations that target European interests whether economical diplomatic or tourist-related. The most notorious operation was carried out by the leader of the Tabesti cells, Ammari Sayifi, who is also known as "Abderrezak el-Para, " a name he got because of time he spent as an Algerian paratroop commando.
The operation, executed throughout February and March 2003, involved the desert abduction of 32 tourists most of whom were Germans with others being Swiss, Dutch and Austrian. The tourists who had been crossing the Algerian Sahara in small groups by car motorcycle, when GSPC seized them, were eventually released. Although German authorities deny it, their release apparently came after Berlin paid a reported ransom of 5 million euros, the equivalent of US$6.l million. Questioned about how much ransom he was paid, el - Para told Paris Match journalist Patrick Forestier, "We promised the German government not to divulge the number.
Most of it was to purchase food for our brothers in Algeria. We also bought weapons and munitions. "
El-Para's interview with Forestier took place under unusual circumstances. In April, under attack by Algerian Army troops, el- Para and several of his men fled across the desert into Chad, where they were captured by MDJT, the Movement of Democracy and Justice in Chad, a rebel group that is fighting President Deby's regime. Members of MDJT detest GSPC because its terror has heightened the activity of intelligence throughout the region, a development that has impacted MDJT. With the permission climbing steep trails, Forestier, another reporter and a television cameraman traversed hundreds of kilometres of the Sahara to the place in northern Chad where el-Para is being held prisoner.
Once it learned of el-Para's capture, the Algerian government began negotiations with the movement - not to obtain his release but to establish its own custody and to hand him over to one of the nations who want to extradite him and put him on trial. Political diplomacy reared its head, however. Negotiations halted after the Chadian Foreign Ministry summoned Algerian Ambassador to N'djamena Boumediene Kanad to protest the talks. The Foreign Ministry said contact with MDJT by Algerian Interior Minister Nouredine Yazid Zerhouni gave the rebels unwanted status.
El-Para's future may be in doubt, but there are indications that GSPC operations in the states of the African Sahel continue under new leadership. Mokhtar Benmokhter, also known as Khalid Abu al-Abbas, alias al-A'war, has assumed the position of "emir." Experts believe it is likely that al-A'war has been able to recreate the Sahara Brigade including hard-line activists from the states of the region. In accomplishing this, al-A'war has one important advantage; Last year he married the daughter of a Tuareg notable from northern Mali, where there are those who sympathize with the goals of GSPC.
The Algerian government may not be negotiating to lay hands on el-Para but continues to carry out operations against GSPC terrorists wherever it can find them. The latest blow was struck by the Gendarmerie in Boumerdes, East of Algiers, in early August, when it broke up a GSPC "scouts" network. The nine-man group specialised in collecting information about policemen, Gendarmes legal defense groups, municipal guards and GSPC dropouts. The group was believed to be the most active of these networks and was the spearhead for the region's operational group. The scouts collected information, spotted the homes of potential targets, shadowed dropouts, and monitored the movements and routes of police and Gendarmerie officers. This was important because GSPC has been increasing the number of targeted attacks in and around Boumerdes.
As part of the operation, the Algerian Army located and destroyed three GSPC hideouts in the area southwest of Boumerdes.
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