Algeria : Al-Qaeda backtracks with 80 elements on ground out of 400 armed individuals

According to security sources, the so-called Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has gone into a retreat with only 80 elements now active on the ground out of a total of 400 armed men who claim to belong to the Droukel's terror group.

Most of Al-Qaeda   members are bases, according to the same sources, in the dense forests of Sidi Ali Bouneb in Boumerdes province, 50km east of the capital Algiers .

Testimonies made by arrested terrorists say that a large number of  the new elements of the Al-Qaeda north Africa branch are youngsters who have been hoodwinked and then blackmailed by the terror group chieftains into staying with the group for future bomb attacks.

Most of them come from destitute or marginalised social environments, and given their young age, they are easier than mature adults to be indoctrinated and bamboozled into joining the terrorists’ ranks.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has also reportedly set up a so-called “death squadron “notably in the eastern Batna region, entrusted exclusively with carrying out suicide bombings.

The same sources also indicated that the recourse to young recruits had become a prerequisite for the terror group as a great number of older terrorists are now suffering from severe wounds and serious illnesses.

The older generation of Al Qaeda terrorists are now said to be mostly in charge of the financial and logistics aspect as well as the coordination strategy among the various terror groups operating in separate regions of the country.

Echorouk has learnt from security sources that around 100 terrorists are disabled or suffering from incurable diseases, like prostate cancers, tuberculosis, diabetics, hypertension, severe gastritis and poor eyesight among other serious crippling healthy problems.

The same sources also say that the suicide – bombers, squadron is based in the  second region adding that a number of new young recruits have been dispatched over several regions notably in the eastern part of the country in an attempt to broaden Al Qaeda’s terror activities as part of a new-fangled strategy aimed sowing the maximum mayhem.

Echorouk also learnt that the presence of women in the terrorists hideouts in the deep forests or mountainous regions has drastically dwindled to a trickle owing to the repeated anti- terrorist combing operations conducted by the national popular army in several regions of the country.

The same sources said in this connection that married terrorists sometimes arrange beforehand encounters with their wives and close relatives at a secret place known only by the latter who often serve as a logistics  back- up network to Al-Qaeda terrorists.