Wüstenschiff

The Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), headed by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, moved because of the fighting between Tuareg rebels and Malian soldiers [...] to a camp 90 kilometers from the town of Timiaouine in southern Algeria in a mountainous area.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a top fugitive leader in Al-Qaeda's north African branch, is in Libya shopping for weapons, Malian security sources told AFP on Monday. "Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the chiefs of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been in Libya for several weeks, notably to procure arms," a top Malian security source said. "This is yet further proof that terrorists will do anything to create a sweeping network in the Sahel and Sahara," the source said.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is facing its first political crisis, following a period of success on the ground, but also serious blows inflicted to the organisation's military structure in particular by Algeria, the only state seemingly equipped to tackle the activity of the terrorist network. Cracks are beginning to appear in what is officially a compact structure, but is today showing clear signs of tension, the probable result of the group's associative make-up, which, beyond the senior decision-makers, has been brought about by progressive aggregation [...] A further sign of the tension in which AQIM now appears to be shrouded comes from the news filtered by Algerian and Nigerian intelligence sources and reported by a daily newspaper that one of the group's emirs al-Khabmokhtar Belmokhtar (whose various aliases include Belaouar, meaning "one-eyed"), has moved from southern Algeria to Libya, with the help of drug traffickers and smugglers, with whom AQIM appears to have agreed an alliance.

As the one-year anniversary of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's death looms, reports are emerging about retaliatory attack plots by al-Qaeda offshoots in Africa. Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) plans to commemorate the May 2nd, 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden with large-scale terror operations in Mauritania, Algeria, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, Algeria's Echourouk daily reported on March 10th.

A group claiming to be al-Qaeda’s North African wing said it had kidnapped a German man and demanded the release of a Muslim woman imprisoned in Germany in exchange for his freedom.

In a statement posted on Islamist Internet forums, the group, which called itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), named its German hostage as Edgar Fritz Raupach, without saying where he had been seized or where he was being held.

There was no way of verifying the authenticity of the statement, which came with a video of a man who identified himself as Raupach asking the German government to save his life. Flanking him were two masked men carrying rifles.

Germany’s foreign office said it was examining the video and working on the case of the hostage.

Trois terroristes ont été abattus et deux autres blessés, hier, dans la région de Meskeline, à 300 km au sud-est de la ville de Djanet, près de la zone frontalière entre l’Algérie, le Niger et la Libye, par une unité de l’Armée nationale populaire (ANP), relevant de la 4e Région militaire, a indiqué le ministère de la Défense nationale dans un communiqué.

In Tunesien haben Aufständische zwei Armeeposten an der Grenze zu Algerien angegriffen und mindestens 14 Soldaten getötet. Mehrere weitere Soldaten seien bei den Gefechten mit zwei "Terrorgruppen" am Mittwochabend verletzt worden, sagte ein Sprecher des Verteidigungsministeriums. Auch einer der Angreifer sei getötet worden.
Ein Einsatz zur Bergung der Verletzten und zur Verfolgung der Aufständischen dauerte demnach am Donnerstagmorgen noch an.

In Tunesien haben Aufständische...