AQIM Expansion Throughout North Africa

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), through its violent activity in countries in North Africa and its propaganda aimed at enemies and Muslims abroad, has demonstrated its expanded presence outside of Algeria. The group’s offensive operations, including suicide bombings, strikes against employees and facilities of foreign corporations, and its taking of foreign prisoners, have also become prevalent since its joining al-Qaeda officially in January, 2007. As if to highlight the group's expanding influence, AQIM most recently claimed the killing of 28 Malian soldiers in northern Mali in a preemptive strike on July 4, 2009 and threatened Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure to expect more attacks should he continue to lead his military against the mujahideen. Nearly one week prior, AQIM fighters shot to death an American aid worker, Christopher Ervin Leggett, in Nouakchott, Mauritania. These two examples underscore what has become a burgeoning threat in the region: a group empowered by its joining al-Qaeda and the global jihad network and moving a conflict within Algerian borders to encompass the entirety of North Africa and beyond.

Since the announcement that the group had joined al-Qaeda in January 2007, AQIM, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), has increasingly launched operations outside its home country of Algeria, striking enemy targets in Mauritania and kidnapping foreign tourists in Niger and Tunisia. Prior to its move under the banner of al-Qaeda, the group had already launched an attack outside Algeria, killing Mauritanian soldiers in northeast Mauritania in June 2005. Between that attack and its joining al-Qaeda, the GSPC did not publicly claim another operation outside Algeria. However, beginning in January 2007, and continuing through July 2009, AQIM has claimed four attacks in Mauritania: a strike on Mauritanian soldiers in Ghalaweya on December 26, 2007, killing 40 soldiers; a strike on the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott on February 1, 2008, killing three French nationals and hitting an “undetermined amount” of Jews and guards; a raid in Zouerate on September 14, 2008, killing 12 soldiers; and the murder of Christopher Ervin Legget in Nouakchott on June 24.

In addition to demonstrating its presence in Mauritania, AQIM has also claimed activity in Mali, Niger, and Tunisia. On March 10, 2008, AQIM claimed that its fighters kidnapped two Austrian tourists in Tunisia, Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber, on February 22. In that message, the group warned Western tourists against traveling to Tunisia, threatening that the Tunisian government cannot provide them protection from the mujahideen. AQIM initially requested that the Algerian and Tunisian government release its prisoners in exchange for the couple, but demonstrated its interest in the affairs of Muslims abroad by later requesting that a Muslim couple held in Austria, Mohammed Mahmoud and his wife, be released after being found guilty of assisting in the production and creation of jihadist propaganda. Ebner and Kloiber were ultimately released for an undisclosed settlement.

Nearly one year after the capture of the Austrians in Tunisia, AQIM claimed the kidnapping of six foreign nationals in Niger, including two Canadian diplomats, Robert Fowler and Louis Guay. Fowler, the UN Special Envoy to Niger, and his aide, Gabay, the former Canadian ambassador to Gabon, were kidnapped in December 2008, in Niger. Four European tourists, Edwen Dyer from Britain, Marianne Petzold from Germany, and Werner and Gabrielle Burco Greiner from Switzerland, were kidnapped in Niger on January 22. The Canadians, Marianne Petzold, and Gabrielle Burco Greiner were released, but AQIM offered Britain a prisoner exchange between Edwen Dyer and imprisoned cleric, Abu Qatada the Palestinians. Dyer was murdered on May 31, several days short of AQIM’s final extension of time for its demands. Werner Greiner is still held by AQIM.

In addition to widening the breadth of attacks across North Africa, AQIM has made sure to address Muslims outside of Algeria to convince them of al-Qaeda's viewpoint and ideology. Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the leader of AQIM, has repeatedly called upon Muslims in North Africa to participate in jihad, explaining to them that the ruling regimes in their countries have transgressed against their rights and their religion. For example, in a speech released on jihadist forums on September 21, 2008, Wadud addressed circumstances and events in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, and incited the Muslim residents in these countries to participate in jihad. He said:

Wadud also individually called upon Muslims in Mauritania and Morocco to participate in jihad in separate messages, citing current events in their countries as evidence of the illegitimacy of their leaders and these leaders’ hostility to Islam. Precipitated by a Moroccan security official allegedly beating a Moroccan woman in front of Oukacha prison, on June 4, 2008, Wadud addressed a message to Muslims in Morocco, urging them to take action against the Moroccan regime. He also stated that AQIM will deploy every “precious and dear effort” to defend the honor of Muslim women, and this revenge will come “sooner or later.” On August 10, 2008, Wadud urged jihad in Mauritania, arguing that the military junta that assumed rule on August 7 “most likely” received approval from the US, France, and Israel. He told them: “O people of Islam, you have the warning.  Wake up from your slumber.  Prepare for war.  The Cross is marching towards you.  So, raise the flag of jihad… let blood spill from us… and let our bodies be torn to pieces until we restore the Caliphate of the Righteously Guided according to the doctrine of the prophethood.”

Sheikh Abdul Rahman Abu Anas al-Shanqiti, a member of AQIM’s Shura Council, also addressed Muslims in Mauritania, urging in a speech released on May 29, 2009, that they boycott the June 6 Mauritanian presidential election. Rather than partake in elections and the democratic process, which he argued is illegitimate as per Islamic law, Shanqiti called upon Muslims to join the jihad and AQIM on the battlefield. Another AQIM official, Abu Abdul Illah Ahmed, head of the AQIM Political Committee, also commented in regard to Mauritania, specifically Israel closing its embassy in Nouakchott. His comments, part of an interview conducted by AQIM’s Media Committee and released on May 3, 2009, pointed to the attack on the embassy on February 1, 2008, as a reason for its closure. Abu Abdul added that such strikes will continue, citing the presence of an Israeli commercial office in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.

While AQIM has looked to expand its activity in North Africa, the group has not neglected its northern neigbor of Europe. Looking beyond the African continent, Abu Musab Abdul Wadud threatened France amidst French President Nicolas Sarkozy seeking to ban Muslim women from wearing the niqab (veil) and burqa (dress) in France. In a statement dated June 28, Wadud observed the assault on traditional clothing for Muslim women as a “flagrant war” on Muslim women and Islam. He added that the controversy is compounded by French women appearing scantily dressed in Algeria and North Africa, defying Islamic customs and traditions.  This, he said, is “extremism” and “racism.” Wadud threatened:

In terms of both military activity and propaganda, AQIM has spread throughout North Africa and made the region another battlefield in the global jihad waged by al-Qaeda and its supporters. AQIM proudly highlights its suicide bombers and fighters who migrated from other North African states to Algeria, and calls upon Muslims in those states to follow the departed into war against what they view as “apostate” regimes and “Crusader allies.” This drive is supported by al-Qaeda leadership, particularly Abu Yahya al-Libi, who in a speech released on June 22, 2009, urged Muslims in North Africa to offer support to their brethren in Algeria and particularly those in AQIM. North African Muslims, he stated, should either do jihad in Algeria or in their own country to empower Islam and achieve Shariah-based governance.