Attack in Algiers: A Warning to Europe
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007
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Attack in Algiers: A Warning to Europe*
By Bruce Crumley
Death and destruction revisited the Algerian capital of Algiers Tuesday
morning when a pair of powerful car bombs exploded, and claimed what
early estimates placed at 62 lives. Security experts say there's little
doubt the attack was the work of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a
group that formed an alliance with Osama bin Laden's global jihad in
2006. Officials say Tuesday's spectacular strike increases the risk that
AQIM is ramping up its violent struggle to bring down the Algerian
government. And as the fourth big hit by AQIM in less than a year, the
incident highlights the group's increasing organizational skills and
establishes it as the greatest potential terror threat to continental
Europe as well.
The first blast occurred Tuesday at around 9:30 a.m. local time, as an
explosives-filled car plowed into a packed bus, immediately killing the
driver and a dozen or more university students en route to the law
school in the Ben-Aknoun section of Algiers. The point of impact was
located outside two highly symbolic institutions of the Algerian state:
the nation's supreme court and neighboring constitutional court. Just
minutes later, a second suicide car bomb ripped through the nearby Hydra
neighborhood, badly damaging the offices of two United Nations
organizations: the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), and the
U.N. Development Program (UNDP). The final death toll may be as high as
100, well above the 30 killed and over 200 injured during the twin car
bombings of government buildings in Algiers last April.
Algerian officials had claimed that a counter-offensive by security
forces since April had decimated AQIM ranks. But smaller AQIM bombings
and gun attacks on police or military forces have continued unabated,
though often unreported. There was also the September 8 suicide bombing
of a coast guard unit in eastern Algeria that killed 32 people. The
ability and determination of the AQIM to strike in stunning fashion was
made even clearer two days earlier, when a suicide bomber charged the
cortege of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a visit to the city of
Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100.
"Any advances made during the counter-offensive by special military
forces has been more than offset by the effective recruitment among
disenfranchised youths since the insurgents took the al-Qaeda name,"
says a French intelligence official. The 15-year-old terror group took
on that name after affiliating with bin Laden on September 11, 2006.
Since that time, AQIM has adopted the structured, stylized recruitment
and attack methods of the original al-Qaeda. The use of synchronized
attacks by suicide bombers in Tuesday strikes, for example, almost
certainly shows the influence of bin Laden's strategists. "The desired
message is 'With al-Qaeda, this is a deeper, broader force than a
radical group battling the Algerian regime out in the sticks," says the
French official. "The attacks are bigger, the damage larger, and some of
targets and victims foreign. The message is clear: We're now battling
enemies wherever we can find them."
Indeed, French security officials say that AQIM's organizational
effectiveness makes it the largest risk of non-homegrown terror to
continental Europe. The French, who keep a very close eye on suspected
terror cells on their own territory, are nervous that the AQIM cells
from Algeria may be rolled out against France and other European
nations, all relatively easy to reach from just across the
Mediterranean. Says one counter-terrorism investigator: "If they can
make it in under our radar, we're blind to them — unless they make the
mistake of making local contacts. That's our concern."
The threat of that kind of imported strike has grown since the AQIM
promised to extend its Algerian jihad to Europe. Bin Laden deputy Ayman
al-Zawahiri has repeatedly threatened Europe — and France in particular
— as enemies of jihadist forces. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas
Sarkozy's friendlier relations with the U.S. and relatively pro-Israel
positions have only increased extremists' ire. Since his taking office
last May, officials say, radical websites have cited Sarkozy's support
of Israel — and his own Jewish ancestry — in calling for terror strikes
against France.
Given the personalized nature of that renewed fury, however, why didn't
the AQIM seek a terror attack on Sarkozy or French interests during his
state visit to Algeria last month? "Success," explains the French
counter-terrorism official. "Trying to kill a visiting leader or bomb a
place he's set to visit while security alerts are full is not going to
work. Waiting a week until security has slackened to below even normal
levels to attack — your chances of success get much better." If that was
the AQIM's strategy Tuesday, it promises equally deadly actions for the
future.