Exclusive: Al Qaeda's North African Connection (Part Two of Three)

Exclusive: Al Qaeda's North African Connection (Part Two of Three)

Click here for Part One and here for Part Two

The activities of AQIM

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When the newly re-structured AQIM (Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb) attacked foreign oil workers on December 10, 2006, it signaled a new direction. As "GSPC" (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat), the group had lost much of its impetus. The attack on Brown and Root-Condor's workers which took place at Bouchaoui, nine miles west of Algiers, was the first attack on foreigners by GSPC Islamists in several years.

Linked with Al Qaeda, the group returned to some of its previous tactics, including the kidnapping of foreigners. The scale of GSPC/AQIM's bombing attacks against Algerian government targets would increase. In a pattern that has continued through to this year, the group has killed foreigners in brutal manners resembling the actions of the early GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé).

On Thursday, October 12, a month after Abu Musab Abdelwadud had sworn his allegiance to Al Qaeda, Rabah Aïssat, chairman of the People's Assembly of the Province of Tizi Ouzou was shot dead in a cafe at Aïn Zaoula.

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With GSPC/AQIM's new allegiance to Al Qaeda, the activities in the south of the group's region became more pronounced. This region had been led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar (Moktar Belmoktar, pictured). Belmoktar had been an ally of Hassan Hattab, the founder of GSPC. When Hassab was ousted, Belmokhtar had consolidated his position as the "southern emir" of GSPC. In 2002, he had been nicknamed "the Uncatchable" by French authorities. He is also called "The One-eyed." Belmokhtar's terrain stretched beyond national borders, extending into Mali and Mauritania.

In September 2006 his right-hand man, an individual known as AbdelHamid, was killed in fighting with Tuaregs in Mali. This man appears to be Abdel Hamid Zaïd Essoufi (aka Abdelhamid abou Zaïd, Abdelhamid Essoufi), a senior figure within the AQIM hierarchy. There are frequent reports of deaths of GSPC/AQIM figures. Mokhtar Belmokhtar himself has frequently been falsely reported as dead.

On October 23, 2006 at least six Malian Tuaregs were killed by Belmokhtar's forces.

By October 31, 2006 a year after the government's reconciliation process had first been announced, 442 jihadists had accepted terms of amnesty. But bombings continued. On October 30, 2006, two vehicle bombs detonated within five minutes of each other beside police headquarters in the districts of Réghaïa and Dergana in the east of Algiers province. Three people, including a woman, were killed, and 24 people, mostly police officers, were injured.

A week after the Bouchaoui incident, where foreign workers were attacked, French security forces warned that two stages of the Paris-Dakar Rally should be cancelled. These stages, had they taken place, would have taken drivers through eastern Mauritania and northern Mali on January 16 and 17, 2007, passing directly into the territory of Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

A rocket attack was made against an army post in Batna in the east of Algeria, on January 30, 2007. Five soldiers were killed in the attack, and in the ensuing fighting, a further 10 Islamists were killed.

On February 6, 2007, Yakoub Khelifa, a former mayor of Benchoud, in the northern district of Boumerdes, was shot dead. Khelifa was a retired policeman. Four days before, on Friday February 2, a homemade bomb went off in the changing rooms of Benchoud soccer stadium during a match. A year earlier, on March 24, 2006, another mayor of Benchoud, (a href = "http://www.elwatan.com/La-maire-de-Benchoud-assassine" target = "a">48-year old Djellal Brahim) was killed, shot in the head outside his home.

Osama bin Laden added legitimacy to GSPC's affiliation to Al Qaeda. His deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had given his blessing to the group on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, but on January 26, 2007, Abu Musab Abdelwadud announced online that "We were anxious to change the name from the announcement of our allegiance (to Al Qaeda), but we could not do so before consulting Sheikh Osama bin Laden, God preserve him. Sheikh Osama bin Laden sent his order and his choice. So, the group tells all Muslims in Algeria and beyond that it has shed its former name... and is now called the Al Qaeda in the territory of the Islamic Maghreb." Nouredine Yazid Zerhouni, Algeria's interior minister, responded by stating that new name or not, security forces would still use the same methods to combat GSPC/AQIM.

On February 13, 2007, multiple bombs were set off in Kabiliye, in the east of the nation. An official AQIM message appeared online, praising "the brave mujahideen" who carried out the car bombings, and denouncing Algeria as a "State of thieves, slaves, Jews and Christians and children of France."

25 fugitive terrorists were tried in absentia on February 26, 2007 and were sentenced to death. Criminal court magistrates at Bourmerdes also gave three others jail terms of 20 years. Two days later, the Boumerdes courthouse saw 11 more terrorists sentenced to death for their part in a bomb and gun attack near Zemmouri racecourse on October 17, 2003, in which four Algerian soldiers had been killed. Various security force checkpoints in Boumerdes district were attacked on February 28, but only two people were injured.

On March 3, 2007, AQIM mounted a bomb attack against a bus full of employees of a Russian company. A Russian engineer and three Algerians were killed. Five people were injured. The attack took place at Hayoun, near Ain Defla in southern Algeria as the workers were laying a gas pipeline. AQIM released an internet statement: "Mujahedeen (Islamic warriors) using a high intensity bomb targeted the convoy of Russian infidels working for the Russian company Stroytransgaz. We dedicate this modest conquest to our Muslim brothers in Chechnya ... victims of the criminal Putin."

Suicide Bombings

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On April 11, 2007, AQIM mounted a double bombing in Algiers, the capital. A total of 33 people died. One of the bombs was aimed at the office of prime minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem (below). The second attack was carried out by a suicide bomber at a police station in Bab Ezzouar at the edge of the capital. More than 30 people were killed.

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The use of suicide bombers had not been a hallmark of GSPC (or GIA)activities in Algeria before it merged with Al Qaeda. The employment of suicide bombers that began on April 11, 2007 signaled a new departure. Between April 2007 and September 2008, a total of seventeen suicide attacks took place.

Localized violence reached a peak in the run-up to elections which were held on May 17, 2007. In the east of the country, in the days before the voting began, a series of bomb attacks and ambushes caused 18 soldiers and 22 Islamist fighters to be killed. The elections, once held, gave the incumbent government a mandate to continue their policies.

On July 11, 2007, a suicide attacker blew up the refrigerated truck he was driving at a barracks at Lakhdaria village near Bouira, 75 miles east of Algiers. Eight soldiers were killed at the scene, with two dying later.

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On August 14, 2007, a former FIS- and then GIA-affiliated Islamist rebel was critically injured in a bomb attack. A bomb was placed in a car outside a mosque, and went off when Mustapha Kertali left the place of worship. Kertali had supported the government since 1999. He died from his injuries.

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A bomb attack by AQIM, which appears to have been aimed at assassinating President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, took place at Batna, 280 miles east of Algiers, on September 6, 2007. The president was scheduled to visit the town when a suicide bomber, who carried his device in a plastic bag, blew himself up within the waiting crowd. 22 people died, and 107 were injured.

At Dellys on September 8, a Coast Guard barracks was attacked. A van which usually delivered food supplies was used as a bomb by a suicide attacker. At least 30 people were killed and 47 people were injured.

On September 14, 2007, at Zemmouri, 31 miles east of Algiers, a bomb was detonated outside a police compound. Three died and five others were wounded.

On September 21, 2007 a suicide bomber in a car loaded with 250 kilograms of explosives attacked a convoy of foreign engineering workers near Lakhdaria. These were under a police escort. Nine people were injured, including two French and two Italian workers. Five Algerian policemen were also among the injured. The engineers were employees of the French company Razel, and were working on the massive Koudat Acerdoune dam project. AQIM later named the suicide attacker as Ben Othman Jaffar. The attack upon the Razel workers came a day after Ayman al-Zawahiri of Al Qaeda had called for support to AQIM, to "purge the Maghreb of the sons of France and Spain."

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On December 11, 2007 two vehicle bombs, driven by suicide bombers, were used to attack targets in Algiers, the capital. The first bomb detonated outside the Supreme Court (above). A bus full of law students was passing when the bomb went off, and many of these were amongst the fatalities. The second bomb was set off minutes later, outside the UNHCR building. At least 10 UN staff were killed. A statement on an Islamist website claimed the attackers were named Abdul-Rahman al-Aasmi and Ami Ibrahim Abou Othman. Picures of the two men were shown, posing with rifles. In all, at least 67 people died and more than 150 were injured.

Beyond Algeria's Borders

AQIM/GSPC activists were already established in the countries of Mauritania and Mali. A notorious GSPC leader in the south had been Amari Saifi, a former deputy of Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Saifi had also been a paratrooper in the Algerian Army. Saifi bought loyalty from officials in Mali, and even married the 14-year old daughter of a Mauritanian tribal leader.

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Saifi became known to the media after 32 European tourists were kidnapped in the Sahara region. His fame would not last long. He was chased by security forces through Mali and fled to Chad where he himself became the hostage (pictured) of a rebel group, the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad. In October 2005 Libyan and Chadian authorities returned him to Algeria. His current fate is unknown.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar is close to both Abdel Hamid Zaïd Essoufi and Yahia Djouadi who command their own factions within the Sahel-Sahara Zone. Abdel Hamid commands a faction in Mauritania. This is called the Tarek Ibn Zaid battalion, after one of his own aliases. He was appointed to lead this group by Amari Saifi. Djouadi's sphere of operation is in northern Mali. On July 3, 2008, Djaouli was listed as an Al Qaeda terrorist by the UN. On July 17, 2008, Djouadi and Abdel Hamid were listed by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

At the end of 2007, AQIM activists in Mauritania committed a horrific crime designed to damage the tourist industry. A French family was on holiday in Mauritiania, and on Christmas Eve 2007 they were in Aleg, 150 miles east of Nouakchott. They were attacked by three gunmen and four members of the family were shot dead. The father had severe head injuries.

Several suspects would be captured in Mauritania after the killings, though two suspects had escaped to Guinea-Bissau. These were apprehended. They were named as Mohamed Ould Chabarnou and and Sidi Ould Sidna, who were described by a police inspector as "presumed al Qaeda terrorists." The two were deported to Mauritania to stand trial.

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On April 2, 2008, Sidi Ould Sidna escaped from custody and went on the run, being givien a "Red Notice" by Interpol. He was eventually captured on April 30, 2008. He had been captured together with Khadim Ould Semane, who was the alleged leader of an attack upon the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott that had taken place three months earlier.

Khadim Ould Semane was a Mauritanian who had joined GSPC/AQIM. He was apparently sent into Mauritania by AQIM to establish a cell in the country. He called his faction Al-Ansar Allah al-Murabitun. Semane would be a local leader of AQIM in Mauritania at the time of the Aleg attack, and was rounded up after the killing. He had been imprisoned at one stage, but in 2006 he had escaped with two others and was incarcerated once more. When placed on trial , all three had been acquitted for lack of evidence.

The Paris-Dakar Rally, which had been diverted in 2007 on account of GSPC/AQIM activity, would be cancelled altogether in 2008 because of the group's militants. It was the first time since the annual rally was initiated in 1978 that it was cancelled.

On February 1, 2008 gunmen attacked the Israeli Embassy in Nouakchott. Though three French civilians were injured by stray bullets, the Israeli ambassador, Boaz Bismuth, claimed that no embassy staff were hurt. AQIM claimed responsibility for the attack. Nefa Foundation has published a translation of the Al Qaeda statement, which can be read (in pdf format) here.

On September 18, 2008, the bodies of eleven Mauritanian soldiers and their civilian guide were found in Zouerate in Aklet Tourine. The 12 individuals had been kidnapped by AQIM a week previously. All the bodies had been mutilated and also decapitated. Mauritania, politically in the wilderness after a coup that had taken place on August 6, requested international assistance to deal with the activities of AQIM.

AQIM had called for a "Holy War" following the coup. After the murder of the soldiers, they celebrated the incident, which they called the "Battle of Zouerate". This appeared on September 22, 2008, A translation (pdf format) from NEFA is here.

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AQIM were also responsible for the first suicide attack in Mauritania, which took place on August 8, 2009. Two French guards and a Mauritanian woman were injured in the blast. The attacker was wearing a suicide belt, and according to eyewitnesses, he went towards two French individuals who were jogging, and then cried out "Allahu Ackbar" before blowing himself up. Another witness said: "I turned towards him, only to see smoke, dispersed human remains and wounded people. It was a horrible scene, and I have never seen anything like it in my life."An announcement from AQIM named its operative as Obeida Abu Moussa al-Basri.

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The most recent atrocity to be carried out by the southern wing of AQIM took place on June 23, 2009 when an American teacher called Chris Leggett was murdered in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania. He was shot several times. Shortly after his murder, AQIM announced that it had carried out the killing. Mr Leggett came from Cleveland, Tennessee and taught computer skills in an impoverished neighborhood of Nouakchott.

Fighting the "Apostates"

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The suicide attacks which had started in Algeria in 2007 continued in 2008. On July 23, 2008 on the outskirts of Lakhdaria, thirteen soldiers were injured when their truck was hit by a suicide attacker on a motorcycle.

In August 2008, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb mounted a series of attacks in the northern province of Tizi Ouzou. The increased aggression, as suggested by Algeria's Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, may have been a response to actions by Algeria's security forces. 12 terrorists had been killed in Beni Douala in on the night of 7-9 August 2008. This incident in the forested region near Takhoukht was the culmination of an intense security operation that had started in June. This operation commenced after Beni Amrane train station was bombed on June 8, killing 12 people.

AQIM released an internet "press release" in which it identified those who carried out the August 2008 "revenge" attacks. A translation of this press release (in pdf format) can be found here. The press release made no mention of a failed suicide attack that had taken place outside a police station in Tizi Ouzou city on August 3. The bomber ripped himself to shreds and injured 12 people, but killed no-one. What is significant in the AQIM statement is the manner in which anyone supporting the Algerian government is labeled as an "apostate".

AQIM mentions an attack which injured three policemen in the forested region near Tikzirt. Two bombs had been detonated "on the apostate police" on August 10. Two of the injured needed urgent treatment. After exchanging gunfire, the assailants fled into the forest.

On August 19, 2008 at Khamis Kur in Issers, 35 miles east of the capital, a suicide bomber driving a truck filled with explosives detonated his vehicle outside a police training school as recruits lined up to be interviewed. 43 people were killed, 42 of them civilians, including relatives of the potential recruits. The suicide bomber was only identified by AQIM as "Haroun".

The following day, Bouira was hit by a double car bombing, which killed a dozen people. 12 Algerian employees of a multinational engineering firm were killed on their way to work when one car bomb, parked near a hotel, blew up. AQIM, who said that this bomber was called Abdelrahman Abu Zaynab al-Mauritani, claimed that the Algerian engineers were "Canadian". The company they worked for is SNC-Lavalin, which has its headquarters in Montreal. The other car bomb, driven by a terrorist called Abu Bakr al-Assimi had targeted a military compound on the outskirts of Bouira. AQIM stated this attack took the lives of "at least 10 soldiers", a claim which is not backed up by available reports.

On 17 August 2008, 12 military personnel had been killed in an ambush near Skikda. AQIM described this encounter in delirious terms, where "with great bravery and fearlessness the lions of al-Tawheed vigorously harmed the apostates and killed at least 10 police dogs and wounded numerous more." The dogs were canines, regarded as haram by many Muslims. AQIM celebrated the "booty" of weaponry that had been seized in the attack.

A full list of all AQIM attacks during 2008 can be found here.

Kidnapping

Attacks against police and military targets, actions which have always been associated with GSPC and its antecedents, continue to this day. Berbers in northeastern Algeria were reported in April 2008 to be showing signs of resentments at the methods employed by AQIM which incurred high civilian casualties.

It appears that kidnappings, which had been carried out for profit by GIA and GSPC were again being employed for similar means. In Europe, there were numerous cells, and recruiting networks operated in Spain's Costa del Sol, in Italy and also France and Belgium. These cells never made much money, but had successfully recruited individuals to go to Iraq to fight coalition troops. By the start of 2007, most Western governments had been alert to the traffic of jihadists into Iraq.

According to the Jamestown Foundation 200 AQIM activists had been killed between January and August 2008. Thomas Renard stated that AQIM had been "driven to the wall."

Internationally, Al Qaeda's finances are currently thought to be drying out, so bargaining for hostages appeared to promise funding. 32 European tourists had been held in 2003, and some media reports had claimed then that the German government had paid GSPC $5 million for them to be released.

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On February 22, 2008, two Austrian tourists were snatched in Tunisia. They were Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51. On March 14, 2008, AQIM gave a three day deadline for the release of GSPC/AQIM prisoners in Tunisia and Algeria. A statement read; "Austria would be responsible for the lives of the two hostages should the deadline come and our demands are not met. As you care for the safety of your citizens, we care to free our brothers who face the ugliest forms of torture at the prisons of Tunisia... and Algeria." AQIM additionally warned tourists to stay away from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.

The deadline for the lives of Kloiber and Ebner passed, with no news of their status. There were suggestions that the kidnappers wanted 5 million Euros ($7.5 million) ransom. Additionally, a radio report claimed that the pair would be freed if a Muslim couple who had just been convicted in Vienna, Austria, for making terror threats, were released.

Eventually, the two Austrians were freed in Mali on October 30, 2008.

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On December 14, 2008, Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler (pictured) and Louis Guay were found to be missing on a trip in Niger. A Tuareg group calling itself Front des Forces Redressement made an announcement on its website, claiming that it had kidnapped the men and their guide and driver.

On February 17, 2009 AQIM announced that it was holding the two diplomats. The spokesman, who called himself Salah Abu Mohammed, claimed in an audio recording that AQIM was holding four European tourists who had been seized on January 22 in eastern Mali, near Timbuktu. They were a Swiss couple, a Briton and a German woman who had been attending a Tuareg cultural event at Anderamboukane, and had been on a trip organized by German tour company Oase Reisen.

The diplomats' driver was released on March 21, and after much negotiation, Fowler and Guay were freed on April 21. With them were released the two women among the European hostages, Marianne Petzold from Germany and Gabriella Greiner from Switzerland. Greiner's husband and a Briton remained in captivity.

On April 26, 2009, AQIM delivered another message. It stated that Britain should release the radical cleric Abu Qatada, who was once described by a Spanish judge as "Al Qaeda's ambassador in Europe." Qatada's sermons were found in the possession of members of the Hamburg Group, a cell which included 9/11 hijackers. AQIM gave a deadline of 20 days for the cleric to be freed, or the British hostage, Edwin Dyer, would be killed. Britain's foreign office did not release Mr Dyer's name.

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On June 3, 2009 it was announced that Edwin Dyer had been beheaded. AQIM issued a statement which read: "The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west.." The killer is suspected to be Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Werner Greiner was freed in July 2009, appearing in the desert region of Gao in the north of Mali. On July 13, 2009, Algerian newspaper El Khabar reported that Werner Griener had been freed after a ransom of 3 million Euros ($4.5 million) had been paid to AQIM, though it did not say who had paid the money.

In June 2009, the Jamestown Foundation reported on an interview given by the head of AQIM's Political Committee. Abu Abdullah Ahmad (aka Ahmed Deghdegh) claimed that there had been an influx of jihadists to AQIM. These new fighters had arrived from neighboring nations in North Africa.

Ahmad had contempt for Hassan Hattab, who had founded GSPC in 1998 but had since renounced the path of jihad. Ahmad said: "Hattab does not have any influence or respect in the mujahideen circles. On the contrary, the mujahideen has considered him for years a traitor who sold his eternity for his life." He also spoke of the need to liberate Cueta and Melilla. These are Spanish-controlled ports in the Moroccan coast.

Al Qaeda's leaders have made frequent mentions of "Andalus", the name given to Spain when it was under Islamic control, following the invasion in 711 AD by Tariq bin Zayid (Tarek Ibn Zaid). Earlier this month, AQIM announced that it had formed a new media wing called "Al-Andalus".

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The full transcript of the announcement, translated for the NEFA foundation, can be found (in pdf format) here.

Kelly Doffing of Global Security Monitor observes: "That AQIM created their own media branch and disavowed publications by any other foundation signifies both that AQIM has expanded its focus and that Central Command is losing centralized control over its regional affiliates."

Whether this indicates weakness on the part of Al Qaeda Central Command or not, it signifies a new confidence. The move suggests that AQIM may be nurturing ambitions to expand its sphere of operations, perhaps exploiting the networks already it has established in Spain. Though the task of reconquering Spain may seem impossible, the ports of Cueta and Mellila, colonized since 1415 AD, could be considered credible targets for AQIM. Cueta has already been associated with the activities of Al Qaeda affiliate GICM.

The future of AQIM and its "Al-Andalus" project is unknown. The recent arrest of Adlene Hicheur, the CERN nuclear scientist, suggests that AQIM may have activists in all walks of life. One thing is certain. With existing cells and networks that they can draw upon in most Western European nations, AQIM is not going to fade away in the near future.

Al Qaeda's North African Connection

Al Qaeda's North African Connection

Part Two (of Three)

Part One can be found here.

Connections

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GSPC was founded in 1998 from an offshoot of GIA, the "Armed Islamic Group" based in Algeria. GIA had originally been approved by Al Qaeda, according to jihad ideologue and Al Qaeda "defector" Sayyed Imam al-Sharif (aka "Dr Fadl").

On December 24, 1994, GIA members in Algiers had hijacked an Air France jet aircraft with 227 passengers on board, apparently intending to fly it into the Eiffel Tower. The four hijackers had demanded that the plane be filled with fuel in amounts three times higher than needed to reach Paris.

The Air France plane landed at Marseilles, where negotiations took place. Here, French security forces raided the plane, freeing the remaining 170 hostages, and killing all the terrorists. In 1995 other GIA attacks were carried out in France. These, and the Eiffel Tower plan, had been designed to "punish" France for supporting the Algerian government. The 1994 plan to fly a plane full of hostages into a landmark, if true, happened a year before Ramzi Yousef's Bojinka plot and seven years before the horrors of 9/11.

From 1997 until 2002, GIA was led by Anton Zouabri, who had openly declared that all Algerian civilians who did not support the group were targets. It is generally assumed that during this time, Zouabri's genocidal activities against Algerian villagers caused even Al Qaeda to grow cool towards the operation.

While North African activists linked to Al Qaeda fought wars of attrition at home, others were busy in Europe. Al Qaeda had support from, and influence over, groups such as the GIA, and then the GSPC, as well as the Tunisian Combat Group, and the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM).

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Additionally, a group called Salafia Jihadia, an offshoot of GICM, had operatives in Morocco and Spain. Between 1999 and late 2001, the head of Salafia Jihadia, Mohamed Fizazi (above) was also the head of the Al Quds mosque in Hamburg, where members of the "Hamburg Cell" worshipped.

Members of the Hamburg Cell - including Mohammed Atta who also worshipped at Fizazi's mosque - would be intrinsically linked with the events of 9/11. Salafia Jihadia carried out the suicide bombing that took place on Casablanca on May 16, 2003, in which 33 people were killed in the explosions, and 12 suicide bombers died. In August 2003, Fizazi was among dozens of individuals sent to trial over the Casablanca attacks. He received a 30-year sentence.

The suspected organizer of the Casablanca bombings, Abdelhaq Mousabbat, died of liver failure in May 2003, shortly after the attacks. Some Salafia Jihadia operatives are also said to have been involved with the attacks on Madrid train station on March 11, 2004, in which 191 people were killed and more than 1,800 were injured. Abdelkrim Mejjati was one of the suspects in the Madrid bombings. He was also a suspect in the Casablanca attacks.

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In February 2009, Saad Housseini was sentenced in Rabat, Morocco, to 15 years' jail for his part in plotting the 2003 Casablanca bombings. Housseini, a chemistry graduate who had been "trained" in Afghanistan is also wanted in Spain, as he is believed to have manufactured the bombs that were used in the March 11, 2004 attacks at Madrid.

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The March 2004 Madrid attacks are believed to have received no direct funding from Al Qaeda. The plot was inspired by Al Qaeda, but not directly connected. Some perpetrators did appear to have connections to related groups. Moroccan-born Jamal Zougam was given a 40-year jail sentence on October 31, 2007 for his part in the Madrid attacks. He was charged with

Additionally, Youssef Belhadj was given a 12 year sentence at the Madrid trial, after being convicted of belonging to a terrorist group. Belhadj is believed to be a member of GICM, and also is thought by authorities to be "Aby Dujanah" the individual who announced on an audio tape that the bombings were the work of Al Qaeda. He too is thought to be linked to the group that carried out the Casablanca bombings.

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A French investigator specializing in terror financing, Jean-Charles Brisard, announced on March 16, 2004 that he had encountered a transcript of a phone conversation in the indictment notes assembled by Judge Baltazar Garzon. Zougam had been in a phone conversation with Imad Yarkas. Zougam told this individual: "On Friday, I went to see Fizazi and I told him that if he needed money we could help him with our brothers."

Imad Yarkas, a former member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, was convicted on September 26, 2005 of conspiracy to commit murder in relation to the 9/11 attacks. He was sentenced to 27 years' jail 15 years was imposed for him being involved in the 9/11 plot and 12 years for belonging to a terrorist organization. . On February 16, 2006 Yarkas had 15 years cut from his jail tariff as the National Court had not proved conclusively that Yarkas had been involved in organizing the 9/11 terror attacks.

Markets and Mosque

Abu Doha, a graduate of Al Qaeda's Khalden training camp, arrived in Britain in 1997 and became a regular figure at Finsbury Park Mosque. This mosque had been taken over by hook-handed Abu Hamza, who had also, according to one source, trained at an Al Qaeda camp - the Darunta camp near Jaalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Omar Nasri said that, during an explosives class at Darunta, Hamza had messed up his recipe and blew his hands off.

Many Islamists from Algeria had taken advantage of Britain's loose immigration rules and Hamza's north London mosque became a hub for Islamists with connections from across Western Europe.

In part one I mentioned Doha's involvements with Ahmed Ressam who planned to blow up LAX airport on the eve of the Millennium. Abu Doha would become linked with individuals who were involved in several European terror plots. The first of these involved Strasbourg in France, close to the border with Germany. Two trials ensued, one in Germany and one in France, involving a group of Algerians or French-Algerians known as the "Frankfurt Group". Their plan had been to blow up the Christmas market which took place in a square in Strasbourg, near the city's historic Cathedral.

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The Strasbourg explosive would have been contained within a pressure cooker. Such a device had been used by GIA operatives in Paris on September 3, 1995: Four women were wounded at a street market on boulevard Richard-Lenoir in the 19th arrondissement.

At the German trial of Strasbourg plot suspects, the senior judge, Karlheinz Zeiher, suggested that the order to attack the market had come from "a London-based group led by Abu Doha." On March 10, 2003 four Algerians, Aeroubi Beandalis, Fouhad Sabour, Salim Boukari and Lamine Maroni, were given jail terms of between 10 and 12 years. One of the accused, Aeroubi Beandalis, claimed that the intention was to bomb a synagogue in Strasbourg, rather than the market or Cathedral.

Another member of the "Frankfurt cell" was Mohamed Bensakhria. He had been arrested in Alicante, Spain in June 2001, accused additionally of plotting to blow up the European Parliament. Bensakhria would be extradited to France to stand trial with other suspects. On December 16, 2004, 10 individuals were sentenced to jail for "criminal Association with a terrorist enterprise". Mohamed Bensakhria and Slimane Khalfaoui, thought to be the leaders of the group, both received sentences of 10 years. The lawyer for Khalfaoui was Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, the "wife" (and attorney) of jailed terrorist Carlos the Jackal (Ramirez Sanchez).

In France, another suspect was found guilty in absentia for his part in the Strasbourg bomb plot. Rabah Khadri, an Algerian, was in custody in Britain. He had fled across the English Channel and had been arrested on November 5, 2002 on suspicion of a plot to blow up the London Underground. Khadri was extradited to France on June 23, 2006. Khadri was also an associate of Abu Doha. On September 15, 2006 another French-Algerian apparently linked to the Strasbourg plot was deported to France. Identified only as "MK", he had been arrested in Britain in September 2004. He was also alleged to be an associate of Abu Doha.

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Until GSPC was officially formed in 2002, various North African groups with links to Al Qaeda were operating in Western Europe. Some individuals from these groups also had connections to Finsbury Park Mosque. One of these was Nizar Trabelsi. Born in Tunisia in 1970, Trabelsi had been a professional soccer player. In Germany in 1989 he had been signed to the Fortuna Duseldorf team, but his soccer career ended in stories of cocaine use. Various convictions followed. In 1995 he embarked on a new career, that of Islamic militant. He apparently became a convert to radical Islam at a mosque in Dostrum, northwestern Germany. Trabelsi made several visits to Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. On at least one of one of these occasions, as he would later boast at his trial, he would meet bin Laden.

Trabelsi was arrested on September 13, 2001, and on the same day four people were also arrested in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. On September 30, 2003, Trabelsi was jailed for 12 years for plotting to blow up a NATO air base in Kleine Brogel, Belgium. This base housed US military personnel. The plan had been for Trabelsi to drive a truck filled with explosives into the compound of the base, and then detonate it outside the base's canteen.

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Trabelsi is also wanted by the United States for a plot to blow up the US Embassy in Paris. One of his associates, Djamel Beghal, (Jamal Beghal) had already been convicted for this plot on March 15, 2005, at the end of a trial that that had commenced 14 months earlier. Beghal was given a 10-year sentence. Five other Islamists on trial with him were jailed for terms between one year and nine years. Kamel Daoudi, a computer expert who was in charge of assembling the explosives, received nine years for his part in the US Embassy plot.

Beghal had been arrested in Dubai in July 2001, on his way to Morocco. He had been flying from Pakistan after a prolonged stay in Afghanistan. Beghal gave investigators information that would incriminate Trabelsi in the plot to attack the air base in Belgium. Beghal also claimed that the former soccer player was to be the person originally scheduled to be the suicide bomber to carry out the US Embassy attack. Beghal was released on Saturday May 30, 2009. While fighting a request for extradition from Algeria, he was placed under house arrest at his home in Cantal, southern France.

Beghal had been one of Trabelsi's co-worshippers at the Dostrum mosque. Beghal had moved to Britain in 1997 and, like Trabelsi, had attended Finsbury Park mosque. On June 25, 2009, Nizar Trabelsi lost his appeal against being sent to America for trial. He must first complete his jail sentence for the Kleine Brogel NATO base plot.

Belgian Networks

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Two days before the events of 9/11, a leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, one of the main opponents of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, was murdered in the Panjshir Valley, northern Afghanistan. Ahmed Shah Massoud (Ahmad Shah Massood) had been giving an interview to journalists. Two individuals were present who had traveled from Belgium, apparently instructed by Al Qaeda. They were born in Tunisia but their passports were forged. One of the two men carried a camera. This was filled with explosives. As the two men pretended to interview him, the camera was detonated, and Massoud was mortally wounded. The camera had been stolen in Grenoble, France, eleven months earlier.

When Nizar Trabelsi was placed on trial in Belgium, 16 others were also in the dock, charged with lesser offenses. Five of these were acquitted. One individual who was convicted at the same trial was Tarek Maaroufi. This individual was accused of being at the center of a faked passport ring. He had provided two forged passports to the assassins of Ahmed Shah Massoud, and for this he received a six-year jail term. The assassins were identified as Dahmane Abd al-Satta and Bouraoui el-Ouaer.

Dahmane Abd al-Satta (Dahmane Abdesattar) was a married man when he murdered Ahmed Shah Massoud. His wife, Malika El Aroud, has since gained notoriety as an internet jihadist, using the pseudonym "Oum Obeyda". In 2003 she wrote a book called "Soldiers of Light" (in pdf format here). In florid French, she eulogizes about the love she had for her husband, and their shared love of the Koran. This "love story" has been eulogized in the Western media.

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In 2003, Malika El Aroud was found not guilty of plotting to murder Ahmed Shah Massoud. She has since remarried, to a Tunisian man called Moez Garsalloui. The pair were arrested in Fribourg, Switzerland, in February 2005. In June 2007 Malika El-Aroud was sentenced to six months in jail, suspended, by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court. Moez Garsalloui received six months' imprisonment, with an additional 18 months suspended. The pair had been found guilty of running four websites which were designed to "promote racially motivated crimes".

In December 21, 2007, fourteen people were arrested by Belgian authorities. They were accused of attempting to stage a jail=break for Nizar Trabelsi. According to officials: "They were planning to use weapons and explosives to free him... These means could be employed for another use." A day later, all the suspects were freed without charge.

A year later, on December 11, 2008 Belgian police arrested 14 people, who were assumed to be Al Qaeda members. Malika el-Aroud was among those arrested.

On May 12, 2009, two French citizens were charged in Italy with preparing terrorist attacks. One was a 33-year old man called Raphael Gendron. The other was a 62-year old Syrian-born preacher called Bassam Ayachi.

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Raphael Gendron (above) had been in trouble with the authorities in Belgium in 2006. He had been jailed for five months, with an additional five months suspended, for inciting racial hatred against Jews. Anti-semitic comments had been made on their website Assabyle.com, a site run from a server in Pakistan. Convicted with Gendron on June 21, 2006 was 26-year old Abdel Rahman Ayachi, the son of Bassam Ayachi. He received the same sentence.

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It should also be noted that Bassam Ayachi (above) was head of the Belgian Islamic Center (Centre Islamique Belge or CIB), based in Molenbeek in Belgium. Here he also ran a mosque, which was attended by Dahmane Abdessatar who was close to him. In 1999, Abdessatar was married to Malika El Aroud in this mosque. According to Italian police, Bassam Ayachi was the uncle of Dahmane Abdessatar.

Bassam Ayachi and Raphael Gendron had been arrested in Italy in November 2008, on suspicion of smuggling two Syrians and three Palestinians into Italy. While incarcerated at Bari, their conversations were recorded. The pair apparently discussed conducting a terror attack against the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. Ayachi and Gendron had also spoken of "a need to strike at the English."

Ayachi said: "We will exterminate the others, I have to exterminate them.... you know of the millions of them leave... strike in the whole world." In a conversation with another inmate, the pair also discussed purchasing grenades.

In September this year, Moroccan authorities announced that they had arrested 24 people at locations across the kingdom. These were said to be part of a "terrorist network" that was linked "with terrorists in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone." The terror group, which was not named, also tried to gain recruits for Al Qaida. The potential recruits were to fight in Afghanistan and Somalia.

An earlier terror network, which was dismantled in Morocco in July 2008, also tried to gather recruits to fight in Iraq. The recruits were expected to train in desert camps run by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The exact identity of the terror network that includes Bassam Ayachi, Nizar Trabelsi and others is unclear. The group seems linked to GICM, and possibly GSPC (now AQIM). One Belgian/Moroccan terror network was led by Abdelkader Belliraj. His group had links to both GSPC and GICM.

GSPC and Al Qaeda

GSPC officially became Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on September 11, 2006, when its leader Abu Musab Abdelwadud announced on the internet that "We pledge allegiance to Sheikh Osama Bin Laden... We will pursue our jihad in Algeria. Our soldiers are at his call so that he may strike who and where he likes." Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda, and its logistical chief, also made a video statement on the website. Zawahiri stated: "Osama Bin Laden has told me to announce to Muslims that the GSPC [the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat] has joined al-Qaeda. This should be a source of chagrin, frustration and sadness for the apostates, the treacherous sons of France."

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As well as urging the reformed GSPC to become "a bone in the throat of the American and French crusaders", Zawahiri urged: "We pray to God that our brothers from the GSPC succeed in causing harm to the top members of the crusader coalition, and particularly their leader, the vicious America."

Three months after the official announcement that GSPC had merged with Al Qaeda (thenceforward gaining its new name of "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), foreign workers were attacked in Algeria, at Bouchaoui, nine miles west of the capital, Algiers. Workers were in two buses, traveling back to their accommodation at a Sheraton hotel. The attack took place on Sunday December 10, 2006.

The oil workers were employed by Brown and Root-Condor, an amalgamation of an Algerian company and a Halliburton subsidiary. Te driver of the first bus was killed in gunfire, and several people were wounded. The injured included four Britons, an American, a Canadian and a Lebanese.

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Immediately after the attack, AQIM released a statement from Abu Musab Abdelwadud (above), which declared: "We carried out this raid as a gift to all Muslims who are suffering from the new Crusader campaign targeting Islam and its holy places. We reiterate our call to all Muslims in Algeria to keep away from the interests of the infidels to avoid harm... once (these interests or individuals) are targeted."

When AQIM had been formed from the remnants of GSPC, the latter group had lost many of its main fighters in Algeria. Attempts had been made by the Algerian government to offer amnesties, and many fighters had been imprisoned or killed. Merging with Al Qaeda would give the group more influence and also logistical support. Within Algeria, GSPC had been waging attacks on a scale that was increasingly smaller than when it had started.

In January, 2007 AQIM made a new internet declaration. Abu Musab Abdelwadud stated: "France which left through the door... is coming in through the window. America is also coming back through the door to share with France the spoils of our riches and control of our destiny, with the complicity of the thief of the house, Bouteflika."

Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been Algeria's president since 1999. In 2007, Bouteflika would survive an AQIM suicide attack in which 22 people died and 107 were injured. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was establishing itself as the most dangerous of the various North African Islamist groups.

In Part Three, I will conclude by discussing the actions of AQIM in Algeria, and also how the group created fund-raising and recruitment networks in Western Europe.

Al Qaeda's North African Connection

Al Qaeda's North African Connection

The Scientist

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On the morning of Thursday October 8 2009, two suspected Islamists, believed to have links to Al Qaeda, were arrested at Vienne in Isère, southeastern France. The men were brothers of Algerian origin, 32-year old Dr Adlène Hicheur and 25-year old Dr Halim (Zitouni) Hicheur. They were arrested at their parents' home.

After three days, Halim Hicheur was released without charge. His brother, however, was detained in Paris, where the pair had been subjected to intensive interrogation. On Monday, October 12, Adlène Hicheur was officially charged for "association with criminals with relation to a terrorist enterprise."

Adlène Hicheur was an employee at CERN, the nuclear research estalishment which site on the border of France and Switzerland. Founded in 1954, CERN is famous for its particle accelerator research, in particular its Large Hadron Collider, which is partly funded by the USA.

The Large Hadron Collider sends hadrons around a circular track at high speed in opposite directions, their trajectory guided by magnets, and then forces them to collide. The reactions at impact, conditions that are thought to mimic the forces present at the Big Bang, are studied intensely studied. Of particular interest is the elusive Higgs Boson, a theoretical particle that is smaller than any other subatomic particle. So far it has never been found, but the Large Hadron Collider's collision chamber is expected to be the most likely place where the theoretical particle's presence might be detected.

Adlène Hicheur works on the Large Hadron Collider project. After his arrest, CERN issued a statement in which it affirmed that his work "did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism". The spokesman claimed that Hicheur had been ill for most of the year and had rarely been at work.

Hicheur's career has been impressive: he gained a PhD at Stanford University in California, and in 2005 he was a research fellow at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Chilton, Oxfordshire. He had also been employed in university cities in Britain - London, Manchester, Durham in England and Edinburgh and St Andrews in Scotland.

French judicial sources have revealed that Hicheur has already confessed to being connected to Al Qaeda, and had been plotting a terror attack. On Friday October 9 France's Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, said that magistrates would "doubtless establish what the targets were in France or elsewhere, and perhaps indicate that we have avoided the worst"

Over the past 18 months, French intelligence agents have been monitoring Hicheur's online communications. Immediately prior to the arrests, they believed that Hicheur was ready to prepare for mounting a terrorist attack. A French security source has claimed that Hicheur's plans were already advanced. Money transactions had already taken place, and the scientist apparently planned to stage an attack against a giant oil refinery owned by the company Total. The exact refinery is not mentioned, but an explosion at a massive refinery could have "caused an explosion which would have destroyed a city the size of London." Additionally, Hicheur is thought to have placed French President Nicolas Sarkozy and others on a hit-list for assassination.

Hortefeux and also the anti-terrorist judge Christophe Teissier (who ordered the arrest) have both been criticized. Brice Hortefeux has been condemned for publicly announcing the arrest of the two brothers, as this action could send terror contacts underground. Teissier has been criticized for making the arrest as soon as he appeared to have evidence that Hicheur was plotting an attack: if he had waited a bit longer, it was argued, then more details about the contacts would have emerged.

The group with whom Hicheur has been linked is now known as "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" (the Maghreb is the region of North Africa including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). This group was formerly known as GSPC ( Groupe salafiste pour la prédication et le combat or Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat). GSPC had been active in France for some time, and also in Spain, Belgium, and Italy. GSPC, in turn had been an offshoot of the radical group known as GIA (Group Islamique Armé or Armed Islamic Group).

The GIA

The birth of the GIA took place in 1992. In June 1991 in Algeria, an Islamist political party known as the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had called for then President Benjedid to resign. Elections were due to have taken place, but FIS agitation caused these to be delayed. On June 18, an interim government with no party affiliations, led by Sid-Ahmed Ghozali, had taken charge of the country. In December elections took place but the Islamist FIS party won the majority of the vote.

As FIS campaigned on a ticket that promised to destroy democracy, the military took action. In January 1992, they staged a coup. This led to a civil war which lasted until around 1999. Between 70,000 and 200,000 people, mostly civilians, died in clashes between an alliance of secularist parties against the Islamist groups. Against this background, the GIA was born. Its Arabic name was al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah al-Musallaha.

The GIA came into being in July 1992, but was not officially allied to the FIS or FIS'armed wing AIS (Islamic Salvation Army) which came into being in 1993. GIA's first public declaration was a threat. It warned that all foreigners should leave Algeria by December 1, 1993, or they would become targets.

Many of GIA's fighters had come from the battlefields of Afghanistan, where they had been Muhajideen against the Soviets. The first leader - Mourad Sid Ahmed, alias Djafaar al-Afghani - had fought in Afghanistan. He was killed in a gun battle in Algiers on Feb. 26, 1994. His successor was Djamel (Jamal) Zitouni (pictured) who led the GIA until he was killed on July 16, 1996.

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One of the first major terrorist attacks carried out by the GIA took place at a busy terminal in Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers on August 26, 1992. 11 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Two other bombs were placed at Air France's Algiers office, and at the office of Swissair. The Air France bomb went off, but an evacuation had taken place, and the Swissair bomb had been defused.

One individual - , a member of FIS, was executed the following year for the airport bombing. Other people were tried in absentia. One of these was Abdelghani Ait Haddad who had fled to France where he stayed for nine years. He arrived in Britain and was jailed in December 2001, but he was finally released by Britain's Home Secretary on February 15, 2002 due to lack of credible evidence.

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Another individual who was tried in Algeria in absentia for the airport attack was Mourad Ikhlef (pictured), who fled to Canada in 1993. Ikhlef had been found guilty of the attack and was sentenced to death. He was granted refugee status in 1994, but on February 28, 2003 he was deported to Algeria. He was arrested and jailed for "membership of a terrorist group operating abroad aiming to harm the interests of Algeria." He was freed on March 26, 2006 with other charges against him dropped. On April 3, 2006 he was re-arrested and appears to still be in an Algerian jail.

The atrocities carried out by GIA were many. These included targeted assassinations. Respected academic Djillali Lyabes was killed on March 16, 1993. Laadi Flici, an Algerian member of parliament, was killed on March 17, 1993. Anti-Islamist writer Tahar Djaout was attacked on May 26, 1993 and died on June 2, 1993. Psychologist Mahfoud Boucebsi was stabbed and killed on June 15, 1993, and then sociologist Mohammed Boukhobza had his throat cut in Algiers on June 22, 1993. Boukhobza's children, who were tied up, were forced to watch. TV journalist Rabah Zenati was killed on August 3, and on August 21 Kasdi Merbah, a former prime minister who had fought in the war for independence from France, was assassinated. With him were killed his brother and his son.

March 10, 1994 - playwright Abdelkader Alloula was killed. On May 8, 1994 French Catholics Henri Verges and Sister Paul-Hélène Saint-Raymond were murdered in the library of the Casbah. On October 23, 1994, two Spanish-born nuns, Sister Esther Paniagua Alonso and Sister Caridad Alvarez Martin were killed on their way to Mass. On December 27, 1994, four priests, all belonging to the White Fathers order were murdered in Tizi-Ouzou in the Kabilye region. Jean Chevillard, Alain Dieulangard and Christian Chessel came from Frnace, while their colleague Charles Deckers was Belgian-born. They were killed in the courtyard of their mission.

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In 1995, GIA launched attacks upon the Paris subway system. Metro stations were subjected to bombing campaigns between August and November. St Michel Metro was bombed on 25 July, 1995. This incident killed eight people and seriously injured 87. The bomb had comprised explosives and nails packed into a glass vessel, causing laceration injuries to its victims. The financier of the bombings, and the man responsible for the St Michel subway station attack was Rachid Ramda. He had fled to Britain in November 1995 and had been detained in prison, fighting extradition to France.

Ramda was finally extradited on December 1, 2005. Ramda was sentenced to ten years' jail on March 29, 2006. Two other individuals, Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, had been sentenced to life imprisonment for their part in the Paris subway attacks on October 30, 2002. Bensaid had already been serving a 30-year sentence for a failed plan to attack a high speed train travelling from Lyon to Paris on August 26, 1995. Another member of the cell, Khaled Kelkal, was shot by police on September 29, 1995. His notebooks had led to the arrest of Bensaid.

The presence of GIA in Europe was not only to carry out terror attacks upon their tradition enemies. Through its contacts in Europe, the GIA was able to raise funds through drug-running, and also trafficking of weaponry.

An affiliated group existed in Montreal called Fateh Kamel, named after its founder, a naturalised Canadian from Algeria. Arrested in 1999 for supporting a terror plot against targets in France, Kamel was freed in January 2005. According to the Jamestown Foundation, the Fateh Kamel cell and a linked cell in Istanbul (led by Mokhtar Kaddi) gained finances from credit card fraud and theft, including vehicle theft. One of the members of the Montreal cell was Ahmed Ressam, the "Millennium Bomber".

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In Algeria, GIA continued to mount terror attacks against their own people, and against heir sworn enemies - Christians, Jews and foreigners. On March 27, 1996, seven Trappist (Cistercian) monks who lived at the Notre Dame de l'Atlas monastery at Tibhirine were kidnapped. Armed GIA members came to the monastery claiming they needed a doctor. The monastery's ailing 82-year old medic was among the seven individuals taken hostage. The heads of the monks were discovered lying by a roadside on May 30, 1996. Their bodies were never recovered. Djabel Zitouni would later announce that the monks had been killed on May 21, 1996. The announcement ran: "We have slit the throats of the seven monks, in accordance with our promise."

In 2002, an Algerian security officer, Abdelkadr Tigha, claimed that the monks had been initially kidnapped by a small Islamist group supported by the Algerian army, and then handed over to the GIA. The monks were decapitated by the GIA when the governments of Algeria and France refused to negotiate their release. In July 2009, a French general, Francois Buchwalter, asserted that the Algerian army had been responsible for the monks' deaths. French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to release classified documents related to the case.

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After Djamel Zitouni was killed in a battle for power on July 16, 1996, Anton Zouabri became the leader of GIA. He announced that "in our war, there is no neutrality. Except for those who are with us, all others are renegades." Zouabri's war against anyone not considered an ally was ferocious and lacking in conscience. The elderly, women children and and even babies had their throats slit. Throughout 1997, atrocities against civilians proliferated. Entire villages, and all members of families would be targets for Zouabri's army. As well as slitting throats, they also burned some victims alive. Many bodies were mutilated.

Some GIA and GSPC operatives had previously found a spiritual home in Britain at Finsbury Park Mosque when it had been taken over by hook-handed preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri. In September 1997, Zouabri admitted responsibility for atrocities against civilians, declaring all Algerians to be infidels in the journal Al-Ansar. Abu Hamza responded by withdrawing his support. On the night of February 8, 2002, Zouabri and two associates were killed in a gunfight in Boufarik, his hometown.

The successor to Antar Zouabri was Rachid Oukali, also known as Abou Tourab. The death of Zouabri marked the end of GIA's period of "power" in Algeria. Many of its operatives had fled abroad, and these would later rejoin the group when it had rebranded itself as GSPC.

GIA carried on for a couple of years but by 1998 it had already become a weakened force, riven into factions that had descended into banditry. In August 2002 in the Chlef region, members of the GIA killed 21 members of an extended family. Even a three month old baby was shot.

The Algerian government had announced a truce with AIS on October 1, 1997 and at the start of 2000, the AIS disbanded.

GSPC

The September 1997 declaration that all Algerians were deserving of death for not supporting GIA apparently offended Al Qaeda's leadership, to a point that they wanted a new group to replace it. In May 1998, the GSPC was formed, under the leadership of Hassan Hattab, who had been a GIA district leader in Kabiliye. Even though he had been involved in some of the massacres of civilians, Hattab preferred the group to attack soldiers and representatives of Algerian authority rather than ordinary people.

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Hattab was assisted in forming the GSPC by a GIA leader for the Sahara and Sahel regions called Molhtar Belmokhtar. This individual, born on June 1, 1972, had been to Afghanistan at the age of 19 and had there met other luminaries in the mujahideen. Belmokhtar returned to Algeria around the time the civil war began.

In 2003, Hassan Hattab was ousted from his role as leader, apparently because he was seen to be too moderate. Belmokhtar then went into a semi-independent position, consolidating his relations with the factions in the south, rather than being allied too strongly with the GSPC leadership. At the time of writing, Belmokhtar s emerging as a force in his own right. Hassan Hattab would surrender to the Algerian authorities on September 29, 2007.

Hassan Hattab was succeeded by Nabil Sahrawi. In September 2003, Sahrawi announced that GSPC had allegiance to Al Qaeda. Back in September 12, 2002, a Yemeni senior figure within Al Qaeda had been killed by Algerian security forces near Algiers. Apparently, Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan had been in the region since June 2001.

In March 2003, 32 foreign tourists were kidnapped from southern Algeria by GSPC activists. Michaela Spitzer, one of the abductees, died of exhaustion in the desert. Some were released. The group wanted $5 million ransom money for each hostage, to gain income with which to purchase weaponry. Finally, on August 18, 2003 the remaining hostages, who had been transported to Mali, were freed.

In Algeria in 2005, most of the 409 fatalities that took place as a result of terrorist conflict were caused by battles between the GSPC and the army and security forces. On Thursday September 29, 2005, the Algerian government let its civilians decide in a referendum whether or not to give an amnesty to Islamist fighters and outlaws (including the GSPC, which at this time was the only group with influence). The citizenry decided to grant an amnesty to the Islamists, if they lay promised to down their weaponry.

On October 1, 2005, almost as soon as the results of the referendum had been announced, GSPC's leader Abu Musab Abdelwadud made an announcement on one of its websites. His message read: "The Jihad will go on ... we have promised God to continue the Jihad and the combat." On the same day, three Algerian civilians were killed in terrorist actions, almost certainly carried out by GSPC. Two people died when their vehicle ran over a land-mine in Medea province, and a 62-year old breeder of animals was decapitated in M'Sila province.

Abu Musab Abdelwadud - whose real name is Abdelmalek Droukdel - had taken over the running of GSPC after Nabil Sahrawi was killed in a gun battle with Algerian security forces on June 18, 2004. The battle had taken place in the Kabilya mountains, 150 miles east of Algiers, the capital. Sahrawi's deputy, widely tipped to replace him, was killed in the same fight.

GSPC in Europe and beyond

Abu Doha was a leader of a GPSC cell, who had earlier trained at Al Qaeda's Khalden training camp in Afghanistan. On July 2, 2001 an indictment was made against him, registered at the Southern District of New York. The indictment claims that around spring 1998, Doha planned with others to use a weapon of mass destruction in the United States.

Doha went to London in May 1999 and here, using contacts based at Finsbury Park Mosque, he apparently coordinated the activities of extremists. According to Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory, the authors of The Suicide Factory (p 117), Doha operated in the mosque with the knowledge of hook-hande Abu Hamza, and "exerted a major influence over the conduct of affairs at the mosque."

A British judge, Mr Justice Ouseley, noted of Abu Doha: "In Afghanistan he had held a senior position in the training camps organizing the passage of mujahideen volunteers to and from those camps. He had a wide range of extremist Islamic contacts inside and outside the United Kingdom including links to individuals involved in terrorist operations. He was involved in a number of extremist agendas. By being in the United Kingdom he had brought cohesion to Algerian extremists based here and he had strengthened the existing links with individuals associated with the terrorist training facilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Abu Doha went under many aliases: Amar Makhlulif, Didier Ajuelos, Dr Haider, The Doctor, Rachid Boukhalfa and Rachid Kefflous. He was arrested in February 2001 as he tried to leave to go to Saudi Arabia. He was carrying a false passport.

Doha was held in Belmarsh Jail, while he fought extradition to the United States.

As listed in his US indictment, Doha is generally assumed to have been behind the plot to bomb Los Angeles airport, the "Millennium Bomb Plot". Ahmed Ressam (aka Benni Antoine Norris) was the individual who was scheduled to attack LAX airport on December 31, 1999. Ressam had links to the Fatah Kemal cell in Montreal. Ressam was staying illegally in Canada, adopting an assumed name. He was arrested at Port Angeles, Washington State, as he tried to enter the USA from Canada on board a ferry. He was driving a rented car. Inside this vehicle were four bombs. Initially it was thought that Ressam had intended to blow up Seattle's Space Needle, as he had pre-booked a room in a motel nearby.

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Ressam was convicted at a court in Los Angeles on April 6, 2001. On the same day, he received a five year jail sentence from a French court. Tried in absentia, he had been convicted of belonging to a network of Islamist groups. In the USA, Ressam had been convicted on nine counts, including attempting to blow up LAX airport. However, it was not until Wednesday July 27, 2005 that he was finally sentenced. He received 22 years' jail, 13 years less than the amount sought by prosecutors..

Ressam's co-conspirators who were sought by America were Samir Ait Mohamed and Abu Doha. Samir Ait Mohamed, a former law student, had lived in Montreal at the time of Ressam's arrest. Ressam had intended to give evidence against him, but in 2003, he had stopped cooperating with investigators. Ressam had originally been assisting United States officials by describing how Afghanistan training camps were set up. His decision to stop talking caused the plans for a trial of his accomplice to be abandoned. Samir Ait Mohamed remained in Canadian custody until Wednesday January 11, 2006, when he was quietly deported back to Algeria.

One of Ressam's former room-mates was Mourad Ikhef, who had apparently given him advice on the plan to blow up LAX airport. As a result of his alleged involvement with this plot, Ikhef was deported back to Algeria in 2003.

Additionally, Ahmad Ressam's testimony against Abu Doha was vital to the United States being able to pursue a legal case. The decision by Ressam to no longer cooperate led to the United States to withdraw their indictment against Abu Doha in August 2005. In Britain, the authorities had been holding Doha in Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire. They were aware of bugged phone conversations from 2001, involving Algerian extremists based in Italy, which referred to planned attacks by their British brothers".

Doha was being held in custody with a view to deporting him back to Algeria. Doha went to an appeals court to challenge deportation and won. In April 2008, fitted with an electronic tagging device, he was released under strict curfew conditions.

Abu Doha, described by the Foreign Office as having "direct links to Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda figures", was also thought by some investigators to be the man "controlling" Kamel Bourgass who also worshipped at Finsbury Park Mosque. Bourgass often slept at the mosque.

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Bourgass gained notoriety for his plans to create ricin poison, extracted from the beans of the Castor Oil Plant (Ricinus communis) and also for his murder of a serving British police officer. Bourgass had employed four aliases since 2000 when he arrived in Britain from Algeria.

On April 13, 2005 Bourgass was given a 17-year jail term for plotting to spread ricin toxin and other poisons on the streets of Britain. He was officially convicted of "conspiracy to cause a public nuisance by the use of poisons and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury". Four other individuals, Samir Asli, Khalid Alwerfeli, Mouloud Bouhrama and Kamel Merzoug, had similar charges against them dropped. On April 8, 2005, a jury found that three associates of Bourgass, Mouloud Sihali, David Khalef, Sidali Feddag and Mustapha Taleb, were not guilty of "conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance."

Bourgass at this time was already serving a life sentence for the murder of Detective Constable Stephen Oake. This had been handed to him in June 2004. The British authorities had become vaguely aware of a plot to leave poisons on a tube (subway) train in London. This information had come from Algeria, and the authorities quickly reacted to it, in a measure dubbed "Operation Springbourne". On January 3, 2003, anti-terrorist police raided an apartment above a drug store at 352, High Road in Wood Green, North London. In the apartment they found castor beans, chemical processing material, and photocopied recipes for ricin. Additionally, £4,000 had been found in an envelop hidden inside a cupboard. Bourgass was nowhere to be found. He was sleeping at Finsbury Park Mosque.

A few days later, Bourgass fled north on a bus, hoping to leave the country. He went to an apartment in Crumpsall Lane, Manchester. When this apartment was raided by police, Bourgass stabbed D.C. Oake eight times.

On February 12, 2003, Colin Powell spoke of the ricin found in Europe claiming it had originated in Iraq. The ricin allegedly found in Bourgass' Wood Green "factory" was not imported, and neither was it in the concentrated strength that had been widely reported then and subsequently. In fact, even though chemical tests had initially registered the presence of ricin, there was no ricin. The recipe was nowhere near complete. Even if the recipe had been completed according to the exact instructions, the poison would not have been toxic through contact. The photocopied material was not from an Al Qaeda manual, as suggested at the time, but from a translation of a passage from "The Poisoners' Handbook".

Despite this, a year after Bourgass was arrested, a GSPC group based in Vénissieux, Lyon, were found with ricin. Additionally, there were several plots in France and elsewhere in Europe in which the GSPC certainly intended to cause widespread death and destruction. Individuals involved in some of these plots were associates of Abu Doha.

In Part Two, I will describe how GSPC officially became part of the Al Qaeda command structure. I will document the various European plots that were attemted by the group, and also what is known about their current activities in Algeria and elsewhere.