Zawaya

The Afghanization of North Africa is part of al-Qaeda's strategy

By: Said Elakhal

The facts and terrorist events associated with the return of Maghreb fighters from Afghanistan to their home countries proved that they have supervised the formation and training of terrorist cells, as well as the spread of Takfirism among young people throughout many cities and regions. This is what Ali Allam, a Moroccan Afghan, had claimed: “Personally, I had the ambition of participating in the Afghan jihad, and creating a jihad nucleus here in Morocco upon my return. That’s indeed what I did by copying tapes, and through the Internet, etc. Consequently, the call for jihad spread in Casablanca, Fez, Rabat, and other cities.” Therefore, we can definitely say that the fighters that belonged to jihadist groups in Iraq will represent a real danger to their communities in many ways.

First: Because of the combat experience they had accumulated while fighting against the highly armed and trained foreign forces in Iraq.

Second: Because of the skills and experience they acquired in terms of manufacturing explosives and using all kinds of weapons.

Ali Allam had also admitted that by saying: “The weapons I was trained to use are not even purchased by the Arab armies yet. As a matter of fact, I was trained to use the M7 bazooka, the Israeli UZI, the Simonov, the Krinkov, the makrov, and many other types of guns… besides the J3, the RPG, and the mortar…” The Iraqi situation had undeniably enabled the fighters to deal with new weapons from multiple sources, particularly from Iran and Syria, who made of Iraq a graveyard for the Greater Middle East project promised by the Bush administration. The Iraqi Defense Minister, Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi, had confirmed before the parliament on Saturday, December 12th, that "most of the weapons seized by our troops are Russian made and smuggled from Syria”.

These skills and experiences made those combatants become experienced and competent in terms of fighting and planning terrorist operations to be carried out against selected targets.

Third: These fighters have become holders of al-Qaeda’s project, and an integral part of the strategy of the globalization of terrorism adopted by al-Qaeda, because they have no choice other than taking up arms against their countries and ruling regimes, since they are wanted by justice.

Fourth: Those veterans are imbued with the tenets of Takfirism, Jihad, and murder against the members of their communities whom they consider as having committed apostasy and blasphemy. These beliefs have the deepest impact on the thinking and behavior of these fighters, since they even refuse the reintegration to their communities, and reconciliation with their fellow citizens.They actually carry a project that opposes the values of democracy and the culture of human rights, as confirmed by Allam himself: “I was determined to use my Afghan experience in Morocco… I came back with the doctrine of al wala’ wal bara’ where there is no room for politeness and flattery: an infidel is an infidel, and a believer is a believer, with no compromises, as not everyone named Abdul Rahman or the like is considered a Muslim… For the record, I had asked Bin Laden to convey armed action to Morocco… As I personally do not believe in the democratic solution, and rather think that jihad is still necessary.”

All these factors qualify those who came back from combat in Iraq as being high-risk elements for Maghreb countries. The seriousness of the danger is amplified by the security situation in Algeria, which is the base of al-Qaeda, in the context of the latter’s strategy for the globalization of terrorism, and opening new fronts to ease the military pressure on the Afghanistan and Iraq fronts; in addition to the favorable conditions offered by the great Sahara for training and hiding al-Qaeda’s elements in the Islamic Maghreb. The desert expansion between Algeria, Mali, and Mauritania complicates the job of local security services and armed forces concerning border control and tracking the movement of combatants. Evidence of this the inability of security or military bodies to abort the recent kidnappings of foreigners in Algeria and Mauritania, or even identify the places where the abductees were hidden.

In this sense, the return of militants from Iraq will definitely strengthen al-Qaeda in North Africa with rich expertise and experience, and it will not be easy for Maghreb countries to dry up the sources of terrorism because of the weakness of security coordination, especially between Morocco and Algeria due to the political problems between the two countries. Add to that the intensive activity of the smugglers of arms and human beings, as well as drug traffickers, given the common interests of these parties. The only way out of this problem is to intensify security, military, and intelligence coordination between the countries of the region, and seek all forms of international support.