al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb
Participant in Islamic insurgency in Algeria (2002-present)
Active	2002-present
Leaders	Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud
Area of operations	Algeria, North Africa
Strength	Unknown
Part of	Al-Qaeda
Originated as	Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
Allies	Al-Qaeda

The al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb^[1], previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (Arabic: الجماعة السلفية للدعوة والقتال‎ (al-jamaa`atu l-salafiyyatu li l-da`wati wa l-qitaal); French: Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat, GSPC; also known as Group for Call and Combat) is an Islamist militia which aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state. To that end, it is currently engaged in an insurgent campaign.

The group has declared its intention to attack Algerian, French, and American targets. It has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State, and similarly classed as a terrorist organization by the European Union.

[edit] Speculation about international links

GSPC Area of Operations & Pan-Sahel Initiative nations

Algerian officials and authorities from neighbouring countries have long speculated that the GSPC may be active outside Algeria. However, these activities most likely have to do with the GSPC's long-standing involvement with the black economy - smuggling, protection rackets and money laundering across the borders of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and Chad - which provides the group's financial underpinnings.^[2] However, recent developments seem to indicate that a splinter group may have sought refuge in the Tuareg regions of northern Mali and Niger following crackdowns by Algerian government forces in the North and South of the country since 2003.

A number of observers (notably Jeremy Keenan) have voiced doubts regarding the GSPC's capacity to carry out large-scale attacks such as the one in northeastern Mauritania during the "Flintlock 2005" military exercise.^[3] They suspect the involvement of Algeria's Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS) in an effort to improve Algeria's international standing (as a credible partner in the War on Terrorism) and to lure the United States into the region.^[4] In addition to staging major attacks over the years, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has also called for a general boycott of the April 2009 Algerian preseidential elections.

Abu Musab Wadoud.

Allegations of GSPC's links to al-Qaeda predate the September 11, 2001 attacks. As followers of a Qutbist strand of jihadist Salafism, the members of the GSPC are thought to share al-Qaeda's general worldview. After the deposition of the group's founder, Hassan Hattab, between 2001 and 2003, various leaders of the group have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. Some observers have argued that the GSPC's connection to al-Qaeda is nominal (i.e. opportunistic), not operational. Claims of GSPC activities in Italy^[5] are disputed by other sources, who say that there is no evidence of any engagement in terrorist activities against US, European or Israeli targets: "While the GSPC [...] ha[s] established support networks in Europe and elsewhere, these have been limited to ancillary functions (logistics, fund-raising, propaganda), not acts of terrorism or other violence outside Algeria."^[2] Investigations in France and Britain have concluded that young Algerian immigrants sympathetic to the GSPC or al-Qaeda have taken up the name without any real connection to either group.^[6]

Similar claims of links between the GSPC and Abu Musab Al Zarqawi in Iraq^[7] are based on purported letters to Zarqawi by GSPC leader Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud.^[8] In a September 2005 interview, Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud hailed Zarqawi's actions in Iraq.^[9] Like the GSPC's earlier public claims of allegiance to al-Qaeda, they are thought to be opportunistic legitimation efforts of the GSPC's leaders due to the lack of representation in Algeria's political sphere.^[2]

After years of absence, the United States has begun to show renewed military interest in the region^[10][11] and staged the "Flintlock 2005" exercise, which involved US Special Forces training soldiers from Algeria, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Chad. The United States alleges that the Sahel region has become a training ground for Islamist recruits.^[12] Yet the two most important pieces of evidence of 'terrorist activity' - the tourist kidnapping of 2003 and the attack on the Mauritanian army base just as "Flintlock" got underway - have been called into question.^[13][3]

Observers say that the region's governments have much to gain from associating^[14] local armed movements and long-established smuggling operations with al-Qaeda and a global 'War on Terrorism'.^[3] In June 2005, while the "Flintlock" exercise was still underway, Mauritania asked "Western countries interested in combating the terrorist surge in the African Sahel to supply it with advanced military equipment."^[15]

In November 2007 Nigerian authorities arrested five men who according to them had seven sticks of dynamite and other explosives on them at the time of arrest. Nigerian prosecutors say that three of the accused had trained for two years with the then Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Algeria. ^[16] In January 2008 the Dakar Rally was cancelled due to threats made by associated terrorist organizations.

[edit] Statements

According to London-based risk analysis firm Stirling Assynt, AQIM issued the call for vengeance against Beijing for mistreatment of its Muslim minority following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots.^[17]

[edit] Major attacks prior to 2007

• On 15 October 2006, in Sidi Medjahed, Ain Defla, Algeria, assailants attacked and killed eight private security guards by unknown means. View Incident

• On 7 April 2005, in Tablat, Blida Province, Algeria, armed assailants fired on five vehicles at a fake road block, killing 13 civilians, wounding one other and burning five vehicles. View Incident

• On 12 February 2004, near Tighremt, Algeria, Islamic extremists ambushed a police patrol, killing seven police officers and wounding three others. The assailants also seized firearms and three vehicles. View Incident

• February 2003: 32 European tourists are kidnapped. 1 dead, 17 hostages rescued by Algerian troops on May 13, 2003, and 14 released in August 2003.
• November 23 2002: Ambush of a group of Algerian soldiers. 9 dead, 12 wounded.

[edit] Major attacks post 2007

July 30th 2009: At least 11 Algerian soldiers were killed in an ambush by Islamic extremists while they escorted a military convoy outside the coastal town of Damous, near Tipaza.^[18]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• REALITE-EU: Al Qaeda in the Maghreb
• Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (aka Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) The Council on Foreign Relations
• Al Qaeda in Maghreb, Javier Jordan
• Les inquiétants émirs du Sahel by Christine Holzbauer, L'Express, 28/11/2002
• Islamism, Violence and Reform in Algeria: Turning the Page (Islamism in North Africa III) International Crisis Group Report, 30 July 2004
• Focus on Terror - GSPC, Deutsche Welle, 3 September 2004
• Interview with Abu Omar Abdul Bir of the GSPC Media Wing (globalterroralert.com website) (pdf)
• Interview with Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, commander of the GSPC, 26 September 2005 (globalterroralert.com website) (pdf)
• El Para, the Maghreb’s Bin Laden Le Monde Diplomatique, February 2005
• The Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat: A dossier Jamestown Foundation, March 2005
• Islamist Terrorism in the Sahel: Fact or Fiction? - International Crisis Group Report, 31 March 2005
• BBC Documentary about increased US military focus on the Sahara region. August 2005. part 1 / part 2 (mp3)
• France declared an Al-Qaeda target: report
• Athena Intelligence Advanced Research Network on Insurgency and Jihadist Terrorism (former Jihad Monitor)
• Is Salafism an Indicator of Terrorism, Political Violence and Radicalization?
• Stop Calling them Salafist-Jihadists
• Indonesia Backgrounder: Why Salafism and Terrorism Mostly Don't Mix
• A Threat Renewed - Ragtag Insurgency Gains a Lifeline From Al Qaeda NY Times July 1, 2008