| Operation El-Kseur | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Insurgency in the Maghreb | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Algeria |  GSPC | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Nabil Sahraoui † Si Abdelaziz † Mourad Kettab † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Operation El-Kseur was a military confrontation between the Algerian People's National Army and the GSPC in El Kseur, Algeria in June 2004. It resulted in the death of GSPC leader Nabil Sahraoui.
On June 2, 2004, the GSPC launched a deadly assault on Algerian soldiers, killing 12 and injuring 26. In response, the Algerian army initiated a full-scale operation against the GSPC. The operation targeted a forested area in the Kabylia region, particularly in El Kseur, Béjaia Province. [1] [2] The mountains of Kabylia have been recognized as a hub for terrorism since the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002. [3]
Following a three-day gun battle in the woods of El Kseur, the GSPC suffered defeat, signaling a victory for the Algerian army. Among the casualties were Nabil Sahraoui, the Emir of the GSPC, Abi Abdelaziz, his right-hand man, and Mourad Kettab, who was responsible for intelligence and communication. [1] [2] [4] [5] [6] The bodies were then taken to the Frantz Fanon hospital morgue in Béjaia, where Nabil Sahraoui's family was informed of his death. [1]
Hassan Hattab, also known as Abu Hamza, is the founder and first leader of the Algerian Jihadist rebel group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) from 1998 to 2003.
Nabil Sahraoui, alias Mustapha Abou Ibrahim, was an Algerian Islamist militant, and the head of the radical Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat from August 2003 until his death the following year.
The Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie, officially named the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie before 3 October 2013, is a Kabyle nationalist and separatist political organization seeking autonomy, self-determination rights of the Kabyle people, and ultimately independence of the Kabylie region from Algeria. It was founded by the Kabyle Berberist Ferhat Mehenni, now president of the Provisional Government of Kabylie in exile, after the "Black Spring" disturbances in 2001.
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, known by the French acronym GSPC, was an Algerian islamist terrorist faction in the Algerian Civil War founded in 1998 by Hassan Hattab, a former regional commander of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). After Hattab was ousted from the organization in 2003, the group officially pledged support for al-Qaeda, and in January 2007, the group officially changed its name to the "Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM).
An Islamist insurgency is taking place in the Maghreb region of North Africa, followed on from the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002. The Algerian militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) allied itself with al-Qaeda to eventually become al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerian and other Maghreb governments fighting the militants have worked with the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began.
El Kseur is a commune in northern Algeria in the Béjaïa Province. The Béni Mansour-Bejaïa line serves this community with SNTF rail service.
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Nabil Makhloufi, nom de guerre Nabil Abou Alqama, was an Algerian jihadist who fought in the Algerian Civil War and the Mali War, and served as the head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)'s Sahara region between 2011 and 2012.
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Abdou Aïssa, nom de guerre Sultan Ould Bady, is a Malian jihadist and drug trafficker. He co-founded the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) with Hamada Ould Mohamed Kheirou and Ahmed al-Tilemsi, and founded Katibat Salahadin, a katiba within MOJWA that later reformed in the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara after Bady defected.
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