Faith

Are Al-Qaeda Members in North Africa Now Seeking Their Own Arab Spring?

Al Qaida Seek Islamic Uprising, Arab Spring in North Africa

PARIS (AP) — Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb wants to put its footprint on the Arab Spring now that violence is fueling the uprisings, and in a two-part video is trying to lure new followers for revolt by jihad.

The push comes as the group has sought to expand its operations beyond its Algerian base and desert outposts to countries around Africa, from Nigeria to Libya, after the death of Osama bin Laden and after being sidelined when the Arab revolts erupted earlier this year.

During the mostly peaceful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the al-Qaida offshoot kept up sporadic attacks on Algerian security forces in its bid to overthrow the government and install an Islamist state. But the world was looking elsewhere.

Now, with Arab uprisings meeting increasingly violent resistance from autocratic regimes in countries such as Libya and Syria, AQIM wants to be seen as an alternative force.

Seeking a peaceful change of leaders is “like giving aspirin to a cancer patient,” a member of AQIM’s military board, Commander Abu Saeed al-Auresi, says in the lengthy video, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. SITE has made the video available and said it was posted Aug. 3 on jihadist forums.

AQIM has entered a new phase and is no longer on the defensive, says Mathieu Guidere, an expert in strategic monitoring and al-Qaida specialist.

Despite repeated threats, the group has provided no evidence it is capable of striking across the Mediterranean into Europe. But with bin Laden’s death, Guidere said, AQIM promised to lead a military and media offensive in the north, south, east and west of the African continent.

And, he argues, that is happening, with stepped up attacks on soldiers in Algeria – the north – in Mauritania – the west – as well as in Libya – the east – where the movement allegedly sent a “minimal” number of fighters.

To the south, AQIM offered training, men and weapons in January 2010 to a feared Islamist sect in Nigeria called Boko Haram, the local Hausa language for “Western education is sacrilege,” according to an AQIM statement provided by SITE. It was signed by AQIM’s leader, Abelmalek Droukdel, using his nom de guerre Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, who evoked “the duty to support Muslims everywhere.”

Boko Haram has significantly raised its profile since the offer with numerous deadly attacks.

There is no sign of a formal AQIM partnership with Boko Haram. British authorities said this month they were investigating a video claiming an unspecified al-Qaida group was holding a Briton and Italian man kidnapped in Nigeria in May.

Al Qaida Seek Islamic Uprising, Arab Spring in North AfricaAQIM stepped up deadly attacks in Algeria in spring and registered more attacks in July than any time this year, according to Guidere. He counts attacks throughout AQIM territory, including in the desert Sahel region south of Algeria – which crosses Mauritania, Niger and Mali, where hostage-taking is a main source of revenue. Four French hostages, captured in September 2010 in Niger, are still being held, possibly in Mali.

For Guidere, AQIM has found a new legitimacy that it had lost at the start of the then-peaceful Arab Spring. Its message is that people can demonstrate in vain against dictators or choose jihad.

“For me, this video is a turning point in the (AQIM) propaganda,” Guidere said, because it is looking for a new way to reach the people.

“AQIM is an elitist organization that believes it is chosen by God,” he said, adding that it always presented its heroes as “exceptional.” Now, “they want to mix the images of popular revolution and AQIM to show that they are the same.”

Part I of the nearly two-hour propaganda film shows protest rallies throughout the Arab world. It includes contrasting footage of various Arab leaders in clubby poses, from Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika kissing Egypt’s now-deposed leader Hosni Mubarak to former French President Jacques Chirac shaking hands with the ousted Tunisian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Part II addresses efforts by the United States, France and Algeria to counter AQIM in the lawless Sahel region, but contrasts that with a deadly July 4, 2009 raid by AQIM’s southern arm in Mali that killed 29 soldiers.

For senior SITE analyst Adam Raisman, it is less the message than the medium – a video – that is a departure from previous AQIM propaganda. Audio messages supported the Tunisians as January protests forced their strong-armed leader to flee into exile.

In what could be another part of AQIM’s bid to appeal to new recruits, the video shows AQIM leader Droukdel taking part in what is claimed to be an April 15 attack on an Algerian army outpost – carried out as the Algerian president gave a speech announcing constitutional and electoral reforms to calm daily demonstrations around the country. The attack near the town of Azazga, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Algiers in the mountainous Kabyle region – an AQIM stronghold – left 13 soldiers dead.

It is rare to see an al-Qaida branch leader fighting alongside his men, Raisman said.

Members of jihadist forums “were exhilarated to see him participating in battle, leading the charge,” Raisman said. “He’s firing his gun, he’s hiding behind a rock, he’s talking on a walkie-talkie, issuing orders. He’s defiant.”

Often graying, aging fighters shown in the Arabic-language videos are filmed on their sorties through the craggy forested hills of Algeria’s Kabyle region or in the Mali desert, accompanied in the videos by taped songs. As in other AQIM propaganda videos, the viewer is not spared the bloody bodies of attack victims and booty taken from the corpses, displayed and recorded almost tenderly by the camera.

The video by AQIM’s media arm is titled “Assault Them Through the Gate, For When You Are In, Victory Will be Yours.” Using a Quranic reference, AQIM pleads for frontal action, not peaceful uprisings, to bring change. A photo of bin Laden, and scenes of him walking in rugged terrain, punctuate the videos.

The North African al-Qaida affiliate was born in late 2006 out of the last remaining Algerian insurgency movement still organized enough to do harm, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. Pledging its allegiance to bin Laden’s operation provided new dynamism for an increasingly battered insurgency movement.

Today, AQIM, like other al-Qaida arms, claims it set the spark for the uprisings around the Arab world.

Comments (20)

  • mike_trivisonno
    Posted on August 17, 2011 at 6:54am

    There is no Al-Queada. Stop using deceptive labels for what is a simple thing.

    They are muslims engaged in violent Jihad. Enemies of America.

    Deport all muslims. Close the mosques. Outlaw islam.

    Report Post » mike_trivisonno  
  • ZABO
    Posted on August 17, 2011 at 5:34am

    take a good look at these gems! i bet they couldn’t spell bomb if you gave em the omb part. with this kind of stupid we should be able to beat them back to slaven days people. i do need my car washed. or better yet muslim swine go park your camel bitch.

    Report Post »  
  • teapartyconservatism
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 9:12pm

    Our enemy is religiously motivated. We can keep killing them as if the war is a continuation of the crusades, but it’s exceedingly costly and difficult if not impossible, for militarism to kill a religion.

    Angel Gabriel, God’s messenger who appeared to the Virgin Mary, is revered in Islam for imparting the Koran to Muhammad in 610 AD. Islam however, has yet to undergo a modern reformation. A revised Koran would no doubt reinforce timeless universal religious tenets of tolerance and peace, while removing outdated dictates sanctioning oppression and violence. Such dangerous obsolescence, metaphoric or not, can only misguide modern Muslims into misery and conflict.

    Given it’s biblical origin, the Koran should be modernized like the New Testament was by Christians, so Muslims might live a better life of enlightened reverence for peace and service, not servitude. A revised Koran, once globally distributed, would encourage a peaceful spiritual life resplendent with prosperous positive purpose, as opposed to perpetuating intolerance, oppression and violence.

    Devoutness must no longer be misconstrued to sanction oppression and violence, be it directed at one person, one group or an entire populace. Tyrannical insularity must be replaced by respect for humanity “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” as justly deserved and equally desired by all.

    Report Post » teapartyconservatism  
  • jaylew
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 4:51pm

    Ummm an arab uprising? It looks more like a Tarzan movie to me. and of course the requisite car wheel is present in one of the clips above….too bad it’s “All wheel…No Lincoln Navigator.” Those are not religious people at all….they are miserable broke a$$ muslims who hide behind the Qur’an in much the same way scorpions hide in the shadow of every single hellish sand dune there is. They look ridiculous in that camo garb….. if it weren’t so pathetic I might bust out laughing. In fact if you look real quick at the picture of them running in the sand…..all you can see is their faces, their teeth, and their hands…..they would be much better camouflaged in Oakland Raiders Starter jackets.

    Report Post » jaylew  
    • Secret Squirrel
      Posted on August 16, 2011 at 5:41pm

      .
      Look at guy #2 in the top picture.
      Is he training for the high hurdles?
      I’ve never seen a man run like that.

      Maybe in training for the gay olympics.

      Report Post » Secret Squirrel  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on August 16, 2011 at 9:51pm

      If he doesn‘t show he’s “fit and ready”, the guy standing on the hill will shoot him dead.

      You think those guys are having a fun time out there? Not frigging likely.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
  • Tyler520
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 4:45pm

    I always laugh when I see black Muslims.

    It is no wonder that the vast majority of the Islamic faith is illiterate; after all, Mohammad expressly declared blacks to be subhumans – “…pug-nosed…,“ ”…raisin-heads…“ ”…only suitable as slaves.”

    Report Post »  
  • taskmaster78
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 3:21pm

    These men are not an “elite force”, they are a ban of ill trained group of hungry and desperate men who have been given hope by serving. We’re not comparing these men to any US force or Canadian force? If so then the writer may want to reconsider it.

    Report Post »  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 1:00pm

    Obama first took credit for the Arab Spring in Egypt and now says things something like, “the headwinds of the Arab spring…”

    He swims both sides of the river.

    Report Post » SamIamTwo  
    • db321
      Posted on August 16, 2011 at 1:32pm

      In the end time many will be deceived even the most wise among us – this is not Political, it is Theological. Pray up, look up, pack up we are going up soon.

      Report Post » db321  
  • SamIamTwo
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 12:57pm

    I blame Obama for his apology tour and the Unions when they went to Egypt to help facilitate.

    Report Post » SamIamTwo  
  • V-MAN MACE
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:56am

    Why not?

    Obama GAVE the country of Libya to the Al Qaeda “rebels” as a reward for giving our second traitorous President after Bush the pretext to trample on our rights.

    Report Post » V-MAN MACE  
  • tankyjo
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:27am

    Man, you guys are brutally funny!!!!!! What’s not so funny is Janet Incompetano has admitted Hamas has elements in over 200 American cities.

    Report Post » tankyjo  
    • taskmaster78
      Posted on August 16, 2011 at 3:18pm

      And? Should we be surprised? The leftist figure, “my enemies enemy is my friend” how else will they be slaughtered only by their own ignorance and lack of understanding of history?

      Report Post »  
  • rienheart
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 11:09am

    Islamic Jihad coming to a Country near you. Stick your head in the Sand and not see that our Administration is actively supporting Terrorists in the Take Over of the Mid East by the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel sees the Danger but Americans still refuse to recognize the Danger in our own back yard. Multiculturalism will destroy America. Count on it. Count on our own Representative’s to further the Agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, under the guise of Diversity and Political Correctness.
    Unless you are actively preparing for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Communist convergence to destroy Western Capitalism, then you will just be a memory to the ones you love.

    Report Post »  
  • USACommoner
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:55am

    Dude second in line looks as though he is skipping. Did they suspend their Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, too…? Just askin’…

    Report Post » USACommoner  
  • DallyWama
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 10:50am

    Wait a minute. Are those SEIU members hiding behind that tree in the background?

    Report Post »  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 7:56am

    .
    Looks like Philly on a Saturday night……….

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
  • NuffSaid
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 7:11am

    Here’s the image you want-dirty bearded muzlims going through the pockets of the dead, filming each item, tenderly.

    Maybe we should plant condoms on the dead. The muz would mistake them for hairnets and asphyxiate themselves.

    Report Post »  
  • ashestoashes
    Posted on August 16, 2011 at 6:43am

    Wow!! How would you like to be living in Africa right now?

    Report Post »  

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love