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| Africa: North | |
| Rachid Abu Tourab alive ... and arrested? | |
| 2003-11-21 | |
| Reports Abou Tourab, head of Algeria’s most feared Islamic rebel army, arrested at his parents’ home near Boumedres. Last we heard he was dead, but okay ... Algerian security forces have arrested Rachid Abou Tourab, the head of the north African country’s most feared Islamic rebel army, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), newspapers reported Thursday. There’s another one to add to the collection ... Abou Tourab was arrested at his parents’ home near the northern town of Boumerdes, 50 kilometers east of the capital, Le Soir d’Algerie and Akher Saa dailies wrote. One family reunion I’m sure he’ll remember for years to come ... But the security forces have neither confirmed nor denied the reports, which are not the first to say that a hardline extremist leader has been captured or even killed in Algeria. That’s the great thing about being Mastermind(R), you get multiple lives ... The press reported in July that Abou Tourab was one of 15 armed Islamic extremists killed during a security forces operation in the Tamezguida forest, known to be a GIA stronghold in the Medea region, 80 kilometers south of Algiers. Either way it works out for me. Algerian newspapers had also reported the death of Abou Tourab’s predecessor, Antar Zouabri, several times before he was confirmed killed in a gun battle with security forces in the town of Boufarik, just south of Algiers, in February 2002. Did they cut off his head just to make sure? The GIA is notorious for carrying out civilian massacres in Algeria’s nearly 12-year-old civil war. The GIA and the much larger Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) both rejected a partial amnesty under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s 1999 reconciliation pact, and are said to be the only two Islamic extremist groups still active in Algeria. The war was sparked in 1992, when the army stepped in to prevent certain victory in legislative elections for the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which had vowed to set up an Islamic state in Algeria. After succeeding Zouabri as the head of the GIA, Abou Tourab vowed to murder all Algerians who disagree with the radical group’s views. That’s pretty much the extent of the GIA’s ideology right there ... "We will continue to destroy their harvests, take their goods, rape their women, decapitate them in the cities, the villages and the deserts," Abou Tourab said after taking over leadership of the group.
Pleasant fellow, isn’t he? The hardline stance of both Abou Tourab and his predecessor Zouabri has led to rifts within the GIA, with at least four dissident factions breaking away from it including the GSPC, which has vowed to target only members of the security forces and government. Though the amount of civilian corpses they continue to create tend to put to lie this claim ... Allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden’s militant al-Qaeda group, the GSPC is the best armed and organized armed group in Algeria, with an estimated 400 members, according to a security source. The bloodier GIA has only about 60 fighters, based south of Algiers, according to a top general of the Algerian army. Last I heard, the GIA was at 800 and the GSPC at about 1,200. I’m not sure if the Algerians are deflating the numbers or if the recent military offensives have been just that good. | |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 I love the name "Armed Islamic Group." It's so obvious. Can anyone imagine an an Unarmed Islamic Group? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-21 4:56:13 PM |
| #1 "Abou Tourab was arrested at his parents’ home" maybe his mother despised the little brat and turned him in. |
| Posted by: B 2003-11-21 2:18:31 AM |