Security
Algeria: Al-Qaeda failing to attract recruits govt claims
Algiers, 30 October (AKI) - Al-Qaeda is having difficulty attracting militants in Algeria and has in the last three years managed to recruit just 10 people, the country's interior minister Yazid Zahrouni claimed on Friday in an interview with pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
"The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb is living its final moments," Zahrouni said.
The Algerian government has unleashed a new anti-terror campaign in the North African country, based on a major media campaign to win hearts and minds of Al-Qaeda sympathisers, he said.
"Many have been forced in to a corner and have had no choice but to surrender," Zahrouni said.
Hundreds of militants have renounced violence since 2005, according to the minister. Although bombings by Algeria's militants, many veterans of the 1990s civil war, have declined in recent years, the militants have continued to carry out deadly ambushes against security forces, especially in the north and east of the country.
The Algerian-based Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb was formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which was believed to have around 500 fighters.
The GSPC, as it was known by its French acronym, aimed to establish an Islamic state within Algeria. In October 2003, it offered its support to the Al-Qaeda network.
It was held responsible for a triple suicide bombing in Algiers which killed 33 people in April 2003.
Al-Qaeda's North African branch claimed a twin suicide bombing against UN offices and a court building in Algiers that killed at least 41 people on 11 December, 2007.
The group in February last year kidnapped two Austrian tourists in Tunisia and held them for eight months in a remote desert of Mali before freeing them unharmed.
It had demanded the release of Islamic militants held in jail in Algeria and Tunisia in exchange for the Austrian tourists' release.
The GSPC in 2003 also kidnapped 32 European tourists in the Sahara. All were freed apart from one who died of heatstroke.
"The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb is living its final moments," Zahrouni said.
The Algerian government has unleashed a new anti-terror campaign in the North African country, based on a major media campaign to win hearts and minds of Al-Qaeda sympathisers, he said.
"Many have been forced in to a corner and have had no choice but to surrender," Zahrouni said.
Hundreds of militants have renounced violence since 2005, according to the minister. Although bombings by Algeria's militants, many veterans of the 1990s civil war, have declined in recent years, the militants have continued to carry out deadly ambushes against security forces, especially in the north and east of the country.
The Algerian-based Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb was formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which was believed to have around 500 fighters.
The GSPC, as it was known by its French acronym, aimed to establish an Islamic state within Algeria. In October 2003, it offered its support to the Al-Qaeda network.
It was held responsible for a triple suicide bombing in Algiers which killed 33 people in April 2003.
Al-Qaeda's North African branch claimed a twin suicide bombing against UN offices and a court building in Algiers that killed at least 41 people on 11 December, 2007.
The group in February last year kidnapped two Austrian tourists in Tunisia and held them for eight months in a remote desert of Mali before freeing them unharmed.
It had demanded the release of Islamic militants held in jail in Algeria and Tunisia in exchange for the Austrian tourists' release.
The GSPC in 2003 also kidnapped 32 European tourists in the Sahara. All were freed apart from one who died of heatstroke.
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