February 25, 2008:
One group of al
Qaeda terrorists was found working with a smuggling gang along the Tunisian
border. This crew recently lured eight border police out one night with a false
tip, ambushed and killed the cops, and stole their two vehicles. The 17
attackers were tracked down and killed over the next few days.
Over the next three years, the police
force will add 45,000 more men, creating a national force of 200,000. While
ostensibly to deal with Islamic terrorists, a much greater threat is civil
disorder from an increasingly young and unemployed population. The corruption
in the government, which refuses to allow free elections to replace it, continues
to anger the population. Algerians are done with Islamic radicals, who proved
better at killing civilians who disagreed with them, than in taking on the
government or solving economic problems. While there are many political parties
pushing for peaceful change, the government is preparing for a more violent
reaction.
The Islamic terrorists are less of a
problem than the smuggling gangs, and other criminal groups, but the terrorists
attract far more media attention. That may change, because the new leader of al
Qaeda in Algeria is believed to be Yahia Abou Ammar, whose background involves
links with smuggling gangs along the Mali and Niger border. Ammar is replacing Mokhtar
Belmokhtar, who is blamed for the many sloppy terror attacks, as well as the
growing number of al Qaeda members getting caught. The smuggling gangs have
been around for centuries, and have a Robin Hood aura about them. The smugglers
are also seen as efficient, and deadly when they have to be. Ammar is expected
to exploit that reputation in an attempt to rehabilitate al Qaeda's reputation.
The terrorists need the help, as they are doing much less well in neighboring
Morocco and Tunisia. Al Qaeda needs a big win to restore its position in the
Islamic world. The defeat in Iraq, and the rise of Iranian backed terrorists
like Hamas (in Gaza) and Hizbollah (in Lebanon) is more bad news. Al Qaeda
considers the Iranians as heretics (because they practice Shia Islam, rather
than the mainstream Sunni practices). Iran has gone out of its way to establish
good diplomatic relations with Algeria. This is a further snub to the down, but
not out, al Qaeda. Meanwhile, U.S. embassy staff in Algeria are warned to be
careful, as there are fears that al Qaeda might be planning to kidnap an American
embassy official. That would be the kind of high profile stunt terrorists aim
for.
Islamic terrorists from Algeria, and
the rest of North Africa, have been showing up all over the world. But some of
these exiles are still involved with terrorism back in Algerian. One such
fellow, a resident of Britain, was arrested in Algeria for providing the
imported car used in the car bombing of a police station.
In early February, the government told
Russia that it was cancelling the purchase of 28 MiG-29 fighters, and returning
the ones already delivered. There were quality issues, and the fact that these
aircraft were assembled from old parts. The MiG-29 has been in service for 25
years, but stocks of Cold War era spare parts are still around, and apparently
put to use to build the Algerian aircraft. These are supposed to be "new," but
some of their components are not and the Algerians may have a better offer from
France for more modern Rafael fighters. France is seen as a more useful ally than
Russia, and France wants to sell some of those Rafaels real bad.