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More on al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

By Charlie

Al Qaeda Islamic Magreb claimed responsibility for the bombings in Algiers yesterday, but who is this group? One of the largest Islamic extremist organizations in Algeria is the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), aka the Al Qaeda organization in the Islamic Magreb This group has been carrying out an Islamist insurgency in Algeria since 2002, and has roots that trace back to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) that fought in the 1992 conflict against the Algerian government.

When I was in northern Africa studying Arabic before 9/11, there was not a broad-based atmosphere of overt anti-Americanism. When I went back after 2003, there was. North Africa, and other Arab and Islamic population centers across the world continue to be areas of concern, especially where there is weak government, poor economic conditions, and a youth bubble. That basically describes all of Africa, but the continent is ignored at our own peril. If there is anything that can be taken from the lesson of Afghanistan, it is that a failed state can be just as much of a threat as a hostile nation-state, because of the base (or al qaeda) it provides terrorist groups.

AFRICOM is going to have work to do.

More on the Council on Foreign Relations site.

December 12, 2007 12:51 PM The Long War