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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.
Abdelmalek Droukdel, also known by his alias as Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, was the emir, or leader, of the Algerian Islamic militant group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), formerly the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). He was killed during a French special operation during the Battle of Talahandak.
Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state. To that end, it is currently engaged in an insurgency campaign in the Maghreb and Sahel regions.
The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa or the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, was a militant Islamist organisation that broke off from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb with the intended goal of spreading jihad across a larger section of West Africa, as well as demanding the expulsion of all French interests that operate in West Africa, which they regard as "colonialist occupiers".
Ansar Dine (Arabic: أنصار الدين ʾAnṣār ad-Dīn, also transliterated Ançar Deen; meaning "helpers of the religion" also known as Ansar al-Din was a Salafi jihadist group led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ansar Dine sought to impose absolute sharia across Mali. The group took over the city of Timbuktu in 2012, which prompted the French-led intervention, Operation Serval.
Iyad Ag Ghaly, also known as Abū al-Faḍl, is a Tuareg Islamist militant from Mali's Kidal Region. He has been active in Tuareg rebellions against the Malian government since the 1980s – particularly in the early 1990s. In 1988, he founded the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. In the latest episode of the Tuareg upheavals in 2012, he featured as the founder and leader of the Islamist militant group Ansar Dine.
Omar Ould Hamaha was an Islamist militia commander from Northern Mali. During the 2012 Northern Mali conflict he became known alternatively as the spokesman and chief of staff for both Ansar Dine and Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), militant groups associated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, also known as Khalid Abu al-Abbas, The One-Eyed, Nelson, and The Uncatchable, was an Algerian leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, smuggler and weapons dealer. He was twice convicted and sentenced to death in absentia under separate charges in Algerian courts: in 2007 for terrorism and in 2008 for murder. In 2004, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Algeria for terrorist activities.
Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, was an Algerian national and Islamist jihadi militant and smuggler who, in about 2010, became one of the top three military commanders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a Mali-based militant organization. He competed as the chief rival of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian national who had become the major commander in AQIM and later head of his own group. Both gained wealth and power by kidnapping and ransoming European nationals. After taking control of Timbuktu in 2012, Abou Zeid established sharia law and destroyed Sufi shrines.
In early December 2013, the French army launched an operation in the Timbuktu region, where many jihadist movements were reported. One hundred vehicles and helicopters were involved. Neither the Malian forces nor MINUSMA took part in the operation. The French combed an area between the towns of Bouje-Baya and Araouane and attacked a katiba of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. A Malian officer said that "the elements of the terrorist group fought to the end. At least 19 members of the movement were killed. There were no wounded or dead on the French side.
Al-Mourabitoun was an African militant jihadist organization formed by a merger between Ahmed Ould Amer, a.k.a. Ahmed al-Tilemsi's Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Al-Mulathameen. On 4 December 2015, it joined Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group seeks to implement Sharia law in Mali, Algeria, southwestern Libya, and Niger.
The Katibat Macina, also known as the Macina Liberation Movement or Macina Liberation Front, is a militant Islamist group that operates in Mali. It is an affiliate of Ansar Dine.
On 20 November 2015, Islamist militants took 170 hostages and killed 20 of them in a mass shooting at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. US Army Sergeant First Class Kyle Morgan, a member of the Combat Applications Group, the DOD SMU commonly referred to as Delta Force, along with the assistance of GySgt Jared Stout, a MARSOC CSO that worked out of the same embassy as Morgan, launched an assault with Malian Security Forces on the hotel to recover the surviving hostages. Al-Mourabitoun claimed that it carried out the attack "in cooperation with" al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; an al Qaeda member confirmed that the two groups cooperated in the attack.
Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin is a militant jihadist organisation in the Maghreb and West Africa formed by the merger of Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front, al-Mourabitoun and the Saharan branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Its leaders swore allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP), formerly known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), is an Islamist militant group adhering to the ideology of Salafi Jihadism. IS-GS was formed on 15 May 2015 as the result of a split within the militant group Al-Mourabitoun. The rift was a reaction to the adherence of one of its leaders, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, to the Islamic State. From March 2019 to 2022, IS-GS was formally part of the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP); when it was also called "ISWAP-Greater Sahara". In March 2022, IS declared the province autonomous, separating it from its West Africa Province and naming it Islamic State – Sahil Province (ISSP).
Lehbib Ould Ali Ould Said Ould Yumani, known as Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, was a Sahrawi Islamist militant and leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
An Islamist insurgency has been ongoing in the Sahel region of West Africa since the 2011 Arab Spring. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.
On August 7, 2015, jihadists from Al-Mourabitoun and Katiba Macina attacked the Byblos Hotel in Sévaré, Mali. The attack was one of the largest attacks against civilians in Mopti Region during the Mali War, and led to the deaths of thirteen people, including five civilians.
Abu Bakr al-Nasr, nom de guerre L'Égyptien, was an Egyptian jihadist who served as the emir of the Malian jihadist group Al-Mourabitoun from its foundation in 2013 until his death in 2014.
On June 4, 2005, militants from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat attacked a Mauritanian army barracks in Lemgheity, Mauritania. The attack marked the first incursion into Mauritanian territory by the GSPC, and the group's first attack outside of Algerian borders.
References
- ↑ "Search - AL-MULATHAMEEN BRIGADE". SITE Intelligence Group . Archived from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ↑ Lister, Tim; Cruickshank, Paul (4 March 2013). "'Mr. Marlboro': The veteran jihadist behind the attack in Algeria". Cable News Network . Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ↑ "Moktar Belmoktar: A Primer on the al-Qaeda Leader in the Sahara". SITE Intelligence Group . 11 February 2013. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ↑ "Belmokhtar's militants 'merge' with Mali's Mujao". BBC News Online . BBC Online. BBC. 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ↑ Weiss, Caleb (5 January 2015). "Jihadists in Mali step up attacks, kill 7 soldiers". Long War Journal . Public Multimedia Inc. Archived from the original on 28 April 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
- ↑ Graffey, Conor (3 March 2017). "Al-Qaeda now has a united front in Africa's troubled Sahel region". Newsweek . Archived from the original on 22 May 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ↑ "Islamic extremist groups to merge in Mali, pledge allegiance to al-Quaida". TVNZ . Associated Press. 3 March 2017. Archived from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
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