35 networks arrested, 200 suspects for Al-Qaeda support

Algerian security forces have dismantled 35 terror support network affiliated to the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and arrested 200 suspects since the beginning of 2008 between January and May 2008, according to security sources.

• Algerian security forces have dismantled 35 terror support network affiliated to the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and arrested 200 suspects since the beginning of 2008 between January and May 2008, according to security sources.
• One of the dismantled networks, some 25 persons were preparing for suicide attacks in Algiers and its suburbs on the first anniversary of the Algiers attacks on April 11, 2007.
• Most of the arrested suspects exercise commercial jobs such as building contractors, real-estate managers, fast-food owners and drivers.
• Those networks are localised in the main strongholds of the terror organisation in Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzou provinces (east of Algiers). “They are close to the command centre to keep watch on their work.”
• Most of the terror support networks’ members are young and teenagers. The command of Abdelmalek Droudkel (the national leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) has recruited people who did not have troubles with justice to pass over surveillance. A large number of them have never been involved in politics.
• Droudkel’s command used to recruit family cells; which hindered security forces. Then, a new strategy based on recruiting strangers was adopted following pressure and chase.
• Those acts had a negative impact on the terror organisation which is in bad situation. Observers say Al-Qaeda is no longer attracting recruiters for fight neither support on the basis of its last acts which killed many civilians.
• The affiliation of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) to Al-Qaeda in 2006 was useful for it in terms of restructuring support and recruitment networks.
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