ALGIERS, 22 March 2007 — Algerian security forces are stepping up an offensive against militants believed linked to Al-Qaeda, raiding targets in cities and mountain hide-outs.
Courts are also being used against the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which announced in September that it was linking up with Osama Bin Laden’s extremist group and has staged a growing number of attacks.
The death of three Algerian soldiers on Sunday is just the latest sign of the growing threat. Four soldiers were also wounded during fighting at Bouira, 120 kilometers east of Algiers, in the troubled Kabylie region, the daily El Watan reported. The security forces said they killed five militants during the gunbattle and 20 in total during recent operations.
The police have increased their sweeps through the cities since the GSPC made its pact with Al-Qaeda. The army has been scouring the mountainous Kabylie region.
But even using helicopters and artillery, it is no easy task for the military to flush out the estimated 300 fighters who can hide in caves hidden in Kabylie’s inaccessible mountains.
The GSPC, which now dubs itself the “Armed Branch of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb,” has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks on American and Russian targets.
Russians and Ukrainians were among seven people killed in a March 3 attack on a bus carrying employees of a Russian firm laying gas pipes in the Medea region south of Algiers. The GSPC said it was to avenge Russia’s actions in Chechnya.
According to an Algerian press toll, at least 34 people have been killed this month alone. Since the start of the year, police have rounded up dozens of people as part of a crackdown in a bid to halt recruitment to the Islamist networks.
Among those picked up are former militants who had laid down their weapons during a February 2006 amnesty. Despite their efforts, however, press reports suggest that local youths are continuing to join the militants.
The courts, meanwhile, are also responding to the violence. One judgment handed down in the eastern town of Batna on Saturday sentenced the GSPC founder Hassan Hattab and one of the group’s regional chiefs to death in absentia on terrorism-related offenses.
