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| Africa North |
| Algeria focuses on Kabylie terrorists |
| 2013-03-08 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] Algerian National Police Director-General Major General Abdelghani Hamel paid a working visit to the operational security installations in Bouira province on Wednesday (March 6th). Hamel recognised the role played by the police force in protecting citizens while emphasising in the same context the mandatory need to address all forms of criminality in the Kabylie region. Roughly 400 armed al-Qaeda beturbanned goons are still active in the Kabylie region, security officials announced last week. The figure was released during a meeting focused on the assessment of security measures in the region to confront the gunnies deployed in the provinces of Boumerdès, Bouira and blood-stained Tizi Ouzou, Tout sur l'Algerie reported. These areas constitute the most important strongholds of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The sources pointed out that about 280 beturbanned goons out of the 400 in eastern Algeria were active in the province of Bouira, where hard boyz recently attacked a Djebahia gas pipeline. Roughly 73 beturbanned goons were in Boumerdès and 50 were in blood-stained Tizi Ouzou. The latest terrorist attack in blood-stained Tizi Ouzou occurred on Monday when a soldier was maimed after a bomb went kaboom!in the Yakouren Forest. The kaboom took place during a sweep conducted by members of the Algerian army. One day prior to the attack, army troops clashed with hard boyz at the southern entrance of the city of blood-stained Tizi Ouzou after a terrorist group opened fire on a security checkpoint. Security affairs expert Kamal Al Hadef attributed the growth of hard boyz in the region to the "withdrawal of the gendarmes after the events of the Black Spring and the protests that defined the region years ago". "These hard boyz pose a threat to the residents of the villages," retired military officer Tahar Ben Thamer said, noting that residents in the area became "victims of extortion of money and supplies after hard boyz lost their most important Emirs". He added that they were operating in a "scattered manner after the after security forces and the army tightened the noose". A report prepared by the blood-stained Tizi Ouzou Chamber of Industry and Commerce noted 71 cases of businesses leaving the province for reasons related to management difficulties hindering economic development as well as the security situation. During a visit to the region last summer, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia called for greater participation of local people in the fight against terrorism through co-ordination with the army and security forces. "Terrorism has declined significantly," he said while stressing the need to continue the fight until its final elimination. According to security analysts, targeting beturbanned goons deployed in the region would be a fatal blow to the organization. |
| Posted by:Fred |