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| Africa North |
| Maghreb countries 'agree joint strategy' against al-Qaeda |
| 2007-07-31 |
| Algiers, 30 July (AKI) - The countries of the Maghreb - Algeria Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Mauritania - appear to be overcoming the divisions between them that have hampered the development of a region-wide strategy to combat al-Qaeda . Algerian interior minister, Noureddin Zarhaouni, told Algerian state radio that a joint security initiative involving all the countries has been agreed to. The aim of the plan is to fight the newborn "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" - a formation which claims to unite groups across North Africa that are loyal to the terror network's agenda - and prevent new terrorist attacks in the region. The organisation claimed responsibility for the 11 April bomb attacks that killed 30 people in Algiers and of 19 other attacks in Algerian territory between April and June. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was formed earlier this year from the ashes of the old Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) . The news was given by the interior minister on the sidelines of a weekend visit by the Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to the province of Mustaghanim, 400 kilometres west of the capital Algiers. The accord, of which no details have been provided, follows the threats issued via the Internet by the self-proclaimed leader of al-Qaeda in the region Abu Musab Abdel Wudud, of a series of suicide bomb attacks in the region. |
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