African Explosions
// Large terrorist acts in Morocco and Algeria
World powers expressed extreme concern on Thursday about the surge of terrorist acts in North Africa countries. Bombings in Algeria and Morocco proclaimed that the international terror is opening the second front after Iraq, which approaches the southern borders of Europe. Local terrorists acting under Al-Qaeda banner began the onslaught on the eve of the parliamentary elections in Algeria and Morocco, trying to prevent moderate forces from coming to power, and trying to strengthen Islamic rule in the region.
Algerian September 11th
World capitals, in their reactions to the recent events in Algeria and Morocco, coming throughout Thursday, showed rare unanimity in estimating the series of recent terrorist attacks in a relatively peaceful region of the world, which has the Arab name of Maghreb and spreads from Mauritania to Libya. Arguments about double standards gave place to the unanimous concern expressed by the authorities of the U.S., EU, Russia, UN, and the League of Arab States.
Despite that the world is used to terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and other ‘hot spots’, the explosions in North Africa came unexpected not only for the international community, but also for the region’s own countries. Algeria’s capital Algiers suffered the most massive terrorist attack of two strong explosions on Wednesday. The death toll has risen to 33 people, and 222 are injured.
The first explosion happened in the very center of the city, near the residence of Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem. A suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into the prime minister's headquarters. Witnesses say the explosion was so strong that it could be heard at a ten-kilometer distance. The bombing damaged the building severely, but the prime minister himself did not suffer. Rescuers and emergency brigades had hardly rushed to the scene of accident, when another powerful explosion shook the city full of thick smoke and alarm sounds. This time, another suicide bomber drove a car with explosives into a police station at the city’s eastern edge. Meanwhile, the information came on Thursday that terrorists had been planning one more bombing in Algiers that day, but it was prevented by security services. Police discovered a car with 500 kilograms of dynamite near the residence of Algeria’s Security Service head Ali Tounsi in one of the busy residential districts in the city’s central part. The bomb was successfully neutralized.
The explosions of April 11th in Algiers became the largest terrorist attacks in the peaceful history of the country that suffered a decade of bloody civil war that killed over 200,000 people. The armed rebellion initiated by Islamists in 1992 was triggered by the decision of Algeria’s military authorities to cancel the elections which Islamists could have won.
“It is an act of cowardice and betrayal, committed at the very moment when the Algerian nation is moving towards national unity,” said Prime Minister Belkhadem in a radio address to the nation. After the authorities declared amnesty several years ago, and the surge of terrorism and violence began lowering, many Algerians thought their country managed to turn the bloody page of its history over. Yet, the recent bombings showed that observers were to hasty to conclude there are no more serious threats to Algeria’s peace and security.
Local Islamic organization, the Salafit Group for Preaching and Combat, created in 1998, took responsibility for the April 11th explosions. The grouping managed to preserve its nucleus in spite of mopping-up operations and government’s amnesties. Its member, who called Al Jazeera’s Moroccan bureau, called his organization “the Al-Qaeda of Islamic Maghreb”. By the way, in September 2006, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second man after Osama bin Laden in the hierarchy of the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, said in his video address that Al-Qaeda agreed to cooperate with Algeria’s ‘Salafits’ to expand the zone of its operations, primarily by means of the U.S. and France. This statement was taken back then as Al-Qaeda’s propaganda move, and was overlooked.
However, the Salafit Group for Preaching and Combat, that appeared in the new image of North Africa’s Al-Qaeda, is marketing itself as an organization whose task is to strengthen Islamism not only in Algeria, but in the entire Maghreb. Apparently, the main thing for it remains the struggle for power in Algeria. Observers think it is not accidental that the surge of unprecedented bombings happened in Algiers on the eve of the parliamentary elections, scheduled for May 17th and likely to be won by moderate forces. Realizing that the policy of national unity is gaining more and more supporters, the Algerian Islamists armed with Al-Qaeda banner made a desperate attempt to recapture the initiative.
Islamic Front in Casablanca
The day before bombings in Algiers, explosions shook Morocco’s capital Casablanca. Yet, they differed in their scenario from the events in the neighboring country, which gave grounds to Morocco’s Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa to say there is absolutely no relation between the terrorist acts in the two countries. However, observers believe that in spite of their outer dissimilarity, the acts in Algeria and Morocco were the manifestation of one and the same trend showing that Islamists have suddenly become active in a relatively peaceful, until now, North Africa’s region.
Tragic events in Casablanca happened during the Moroccan special services’ operation for capturing the members of a local Islamist grouping’s militant wing. When the police surrounded the house where the criminals were hiding, one of them rushed onto the roof and blew himself up. The building’s part was ruined, but the house itself did not explode, fortunately. Bomb technicians later discovered over six kilograms of explosives on one of the house’s floors. Another terrorist, who tried to blew himself up as well, was shot dead by the police. Two other criminals attempted to run away, but when the police draw up with them, they also blew themselves up. The first explosion killed one policeman and nearly ten passers-by. The last of the four terrorists was discovered later in the day. His suicide, committed in a busy street of Casablanca, brought the largest number of victims. Nineteen people, including five policemen, received injuries.
These suicide bombers were suspected of preparing a number of terrorist acts on foreign vessels in Casablanca’s harbor, and in the hotels, night clubs and shopping malls popular among tourists.
Just like in Algeria, terrorist underworld in Morocco strengthened on the eve of the parliamentary elections scheduled for September. According to all public opinion polls, the opposition’s moderate Islamic Party of Justice and Development is to confidently win the elections. Experts believe one of the terrorists’ purposes is to prevent the moderate forces from coming to parliament, for they might hamper the victory of radical Islam ideas in Morocco.
Europol Warns
While the world’s international terrorism is declaring that it is opening the second front (in North Africa), beside the Middle East front, which closely approaches Europe’s southern borders, the international police organization Europol published a report that contains new proofs that the terrorism threat for Europe has increased. Having studied the level of terrorist threat in 27 EU member states, Europol reminds that 498 terrorist acts and their attempts were committed in Europe in 2006. The report names among the most notorious failed acts of Islamists the attempts to carry explosives into airplanes in Great Britain and into trains in Germany. The report adds that 706 people, mainly Muslims, were arrested in 15 EU states in 2006, on suspicion of terrorist activities, and 303 were taken to court.
Europol believes that France, Spain, and Great Britain are terrorists’ main targets in Europe. Thus, it confirms that the threat of the North Africa front’s moving closer to those countries, which has been announced by Maghreb’s terrorists recently, looks quite realistic. The report also says that Al-Qaeda’s propaganda and its ideological influence have become more sophisticated recently, increasing significantly. Meanwhile, the attempts of Algerian and Moroccan terrorists to join the banners of uncatchable Osama bin Laden confirm Europol’s conclusions.
Sergei Strokan, Natalia Portyakova
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 13, 2007
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