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| North Africa |
| Truck Bomb Plot Targeted U.S Embassy In Mali |
| 2003-06-05 |
| An Algerian terrorist group was preparing this May to attack a regional U.S. embassy, mimicking bombing tactics used by al Qaeda against embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. A coalition of African anti-terror units frustrated specific plans last month by the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (known by the acronym GSPC) to attack the U.S. Embassy in Mali's capital, Bamako. Algerian anti-terror units and their Malian counterparts seized false French passports, $5,000 in cash, and documents described as sketches of the projected truck bombing intended to strike the embassy. Al Qaeda used truck bombs in 1998 against the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 224 people and injuring hundreds. The incriminating documents about the Mali plot were discovered in northern Malian villages where a well-known GSPC representative with alleged al Qaeda connections named Mokhtar Belmokhtar is said to have been hiding. Algerian intelligence authorities have concluded, based on Belmokhtar's associations, that al Qaeda's interest in the region has increased over the past year. Mali, Niger and Mauritania have been placed high on the list of targets for al Qaeda-related terrorism since a representative of Osama bin Laden's terror network met with Belmokhtar during a visit to Niger and Mali last summer. More soft African targets The meeting involved a Yemeni named Emad Abdelwahid Ahmed Alwan (aka Abu Mohamed, aka Sidi Ahmed Habiballah), whom French intelligence sources described as al Qaeda's representative in Northern Africa until he was killed in September last year. Alwan was said to have had a long association with bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and allegedly had contact with USS Cole bombing suspect Muhammad Hamdi al-Ahdal (aka Abu Ali), and the now-captured senior al Qaeda planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the summer of 2002. French intelligence and counterterrorism analysts say that the visit by Alwan to GSPC strongholds was far from routine, especially at time when al Qaeda was desperately looking to establish its operational capacity in remote and desolate areas of new countries after losing its grip in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and parts of Yemen. Alwan's visit can be interpreted as a prelude to a surge in terrorist activities in the Saharan states of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad — a belief that may now be confirmed by the uncovered truck-bomb plot. The same sources say that Alwan's presence in southern Algeria coincided with the delivery of several tons of arms, including several mortar launchers, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and possibly surface-to-air missiles, from Niger to Algeria. The arms are said to have come from Sudan and Chad. Based on this information, sources said, a U.S. delegation visited Bamako in October for discussions which included the question of establishing a new military task force, which would include U.S. special forces and CIA operatives, in northern Mali. A U.S. State Department official had no specific information on the planned attack, and declined to comment further. State will be the last to know |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 It's always French passports they find on these guys. They are not ours friends. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2003-06-05 13:11:54 |