GROUP PROFILE GROUP PROFILE:


al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)


History and Ideology The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) rebranded itself as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in 2007, after pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda's, then deputy, leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, welcomed the GSPC into the wider al-Qaeda movement. The GSPC, an extremist splinter group of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was formed in Algeria in 1996, with the goal of overthrowing the


secular Algerian government


and imposing an Islamic state on the country.


AQIM has pledged


to attack Algerian, US, French and Spanish targets. Algerian officials and authorities from neighbouring countries have speculated that the GSPC may be active outside Algeria. These activities may relate to the group's alleged long-standing involvement with protection rackets, smuggling and money


laundering


across the borders of Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.


Leader


Abu Musab Abdul Wadoud, born in 1970, became leader


of the then


GSPC in 2004, upon the death of Nabil Sahraoui. In 2005, deputy GSPC leader Amari Saifi was sentenced to life in prison by an Algiers court for kidnapping 32 European tourists in


and Financing Combatants, Tactics


Estimated members range from 300-800. AQIM’s tactics include bomb attacks and kidnappings. About a dozen French and Italian hostages are currently being held by the group. Sources of finance are AQIM members living in Western Europe and Algerian expatriates sympathetic to the group, as well as protection rackets and smuggling across the Sahara and the Sahel. The Algerian government has accused Sudan and Iran of financing the group. AQIM has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the US and the EU as well as the governments of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.


2003. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is a deputy leader who leads the Saharan faction of the group and has organised the importation of arms for the underground network from Niger and Mali.


18 CounterTerrorGazette CT-GAZETTE.COM


to or claimed by AQIM and recent events February 2003: 32 European tourists were kidnapped. One died, seventeen hostages were rescued by Algerian troops in May 2003, and the others were released in August 2003. April 2007: At least 30 people were killed in bomb attacks against government buildings in Algiers. September 2007: A suicide bomb attack against the motorcade of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika killed 20 people. The President was uninjured. December 2007: Twin car bombs claimed by AQIM killed at least 37 people in Algiers, including 17 UN staff.


January 2008: the annual Dakar Rally was cancelled due to threats made by the group.


Notable Attacks attributed


December 2008: Militants from AQIM abducted the United Nations special envoy, Robert Fowler, and his assistant, Louis Guay, near Niger's capital, Niamey. They were released in April 2009. January 2009: Four Westerners were kidnapped in an ambush near the Mali- Niger border. One, Briton Edwin Dyer, was executed in May 2009 after the British government failed to meet the group’s demands to free Abu Qatada, the Jordanian militant, imprisoned in the UK. 2011: AQIM supported demonstrations against the Algerian and Tunisian governments during the Arab Spring in early 2011. The group offered military aid and training to the demonstrators, calling on them to overthrow "the corrupt, criminal and tyrannical" regime. March 2012: AQIM released a video in which they threatened to kill a German national, Edgar Fritz Raupach, who they claim to be holding hostage, if Germany doesn’t release a Turkish-born woman serving a prison sentence for terrorism offences.


Associated Groups


AQIM is part of the al-Qaeda network. A report in Foreign Policy magazine in January 2011, suggested links between the group and Polisario, the militant group fighting for independence for the Western Sahara from Morocco. In October 2011, a splinter group of AQIM broke off and formed the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, with the stated aim of spreading jihad further into West Africa. Intelligence sources also cite credible links between AQIM and Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist extremist group.


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