The Algerian armed forces said yesterday they had killed the leader of a major Islamic rebel group with ties to al-Qaeda.
"Units of the People's National Army, engaged in a vast anti-terrorist operation... have killed a number of criminals, including Nabil Sahraoui, alias Mustapha Abou Ibrahim, chief of the terrorist group known as the GSPC, as well as his [three] main aides," the army said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
It said the militants died in the province of Bejaia, some 200km east of the capital Algiers. It did not say when they were killed, but said the military operation was still going on.
The death of Sahraoui, who took over the leadership a year ago, was expected to significantly weaken the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) the only remaining major rebel organization still fighting Algeria's secular authorities.
The group, believed to number around 500 armed members, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 32 European tourists in the Sahara desert last year. It is on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Algeria's President Abelaziz Bouteflika has made it a priority to crush Islamic militants bent on turning the Muslim country into a Taliban-style state.
"The leadership of the GSPC has been decapitated and it will be difficult to rebuild a strong leadership as most of the top officials are dead, under arrest or have disappeared," said Mounir Boudjema, an Algerian security expert and editor.
"It is now a much-weakened group but it's not the end of terrorism as links to al Qaeda remain and some will keep fighting."
Islamic extremist groups took up arms to overthrow the government after army-backed authorities cancelled parliamentary elections a radical Islamic party was poised to win in 1992.
More than 150,000 people, mostly civilians, have since been killed, according to human rights groups. Violence has sharply declined over the past two years but the recent alignment of the GSPC to al Qaeda has worried analysts and diplomats.
Earlier this month the GSPC declared war on foreign individuals and companies in Algeria. The move came amid a series of such attacks on foreigners in Saudi Arabia -- where, on Friday, the leader of al Qaeda in the kingdom was shot dead by security forces.
The GSPC was created in 1998 by former members of the Armed Islamic Group who did not agree with attacls on civilians.
Analysts said Sahraoui's death would clear the way for those who wanted to surrender in exchange for some form of amnesty, which he had opposed.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS