Al Qaeda Targets North Africa

A new Al Qaeda is emerging in North Africa. Though not directly associated with the bin Ladin group, they have declared allegiance in a drive for headlines and have taken to attack the general population as in Iraq. The remnants of the Islamists who fought a civil war in Algeria now want to export terror beyond their borders.
The Daily Star

Moroccan King Mohammad VI on Friday urged North African countries to work together against terrorism, warning his country risks attacks similar to the bombings that hit Algeria.


"We are ready to work with all the leaders of the five Maghreb states to ensure the protection of our people and our countries, and protect against the risks and perils of them turning into a hideous and awful base for terrorism," he said in a condolence message to Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika.


Two suicide car bombings in Algiers on Wednesday killed 33 people and wounded more than 220. Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, claimed responsibility.


The day before, three suicide bombers blew themselves up and a fourth was killed by police in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, fuelling regional fears of resurgence in militant activity following crackdowns by North African governments.

PINR in it's recent Intelligence Brief attributes the Algerian attack to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (G.S.P.C.). Their assessment persuasively concludes that the events in Casablanca were not coordinated with the Algerian attack in any organized way. The Casablanca event was poorly conceived and foiled by police. The Algerian event was "successful", "hitting the heart of Algerian political power and killing tens of people".
The recent enactment of a "policy of national reconciliation has paradoxically prompted the resurgence of Algerian terrorism." PINR notes that:

in the past, Algerian authorities have tried to depict Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as a region-wide organization that controls all terrorist activities in the area, but this statement has never been supported by any evidence and seems biased toward an overestimation of its structure in order to obtain more military aid from the United States.


On the contrary, the latest operations seem to confirm that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is still based on the structure and organization of the former G.S.P.C. Algeria acts as the epicenter of Islamic terrorism in the region: the G.S.P.C. is the only group capable of ambushing a military patrol and hitting the prime minister's office in less than ten days; the degree of coordination and discipline needed to achieve these operations is unknown in places like Libya, Tunisia and even Morocco.


In this sense, the renaming of the organization and its affiliation to al-Qaeda (with all the advantages stemming from the use of this world-famous brand, including wider media coverage) can be seen as a major offensive by the G.S.P.C. to impose its regional control and thus become the most important terrorist group in the area.