Algeria kills top terror leader

Algeria kills top terror leader
Sunday, June 20, 2004 Posted: 7:06 PM EDT (2306 GMT)

ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) - The Algerian military has killed the leader of an Islamic rebel organization with ties to al Qaeda, the army said on Sunday, dealing a significant blow to north Africa's top militant group. "Units of the People's National Army, engaged in a vast anti-terrorist operation ... have killed a number of criminals, including Nabil Sahraoui, alias Mustapha Abou Ibrahim, chief of the terrorist group known as the GSPC, as well as his main aides," the army said in a statement.

It said seven militants died in a military operation still going on in the province of Bejaia, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of the capital Algiers. They were slain on Thursday and Friday.

The death of Sahraoui, who established links with al Qaeda after taking over the leadership a year ago, was expected to significantly weaken the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) - the only remaining major rebel organization still fighting Algeria's secular authorities.

It occurred as the leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia was shot to death by the Kingdom's security forces. GSPC is believed to be north Africa's largest militant group, with an estimated 500 armed members. The movement, which had claimed responsibility for kidnapping 32 European tourists in the Sahara desert last year, is on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist groups.

Algeria's President Abelaziz Bouteflika has made it a priority to crush militants bent on turning the Arab country into a Taliban-style Muslim state and has gradually brought the oil-rich north African country out of international isolation.

End in sight?
"The leadership of the GSPC has been decapitated and it will be difficult to rebuild a strong leadership as most of the top officials are dead, under arrest or have disappeared," said Mounir Boudjema, an Algerian security expert and editor.

University of Algiers professor Mahmoud Belhimer said: "It's a big victory for the army but until key social issues, such as housing shortages and unemployment, are addressed rebels will be able to recruit disillusioned Algerians."

Islamic militant groups took up arms to overthrow the government after army-backed authorities cancelled parliamentary elections a radical Islamic party was poised to win in 1992. More than 150,000 people, mostly civilians, have since been killed, according to human rights groups. Violence sharply declined after thousands of rebels accepted a 1999 amnesty offer but the recent alignment of the GSPC to al Qaeda has worried analysts and diplomats.

The U.S. administration is worried that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network is trying to establish itself in the vast Sahara region through Sahraoui's movement. Earlier this month the GSPC declared war on foreign individuals and companies in Algeria. "We welcome progress against terrorism wherever it occurs," U.S. ambassador to Algeria Richard Erdman said after the death of Sahraoui.

The GSPC was created in 1998 by former members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) who did not agree with the GIA's attacks on civilians. Analysts said Sahraoui's death would clear the way for those who wanted to surrender in exchange for some form of amnesty, which he had opposed. Sahraoui - in his mid-30s - was a former GIA member and reportedly trained at bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.