Algeria Armed Forces Overthrow AQIM’s Armament Leader, Droukdel’s First Assistant

Algeria ANP Forces at the operational sector of El Oued (South-eastern Algeria) overthrew AQIM’s Armament Leader, Mohamed Charif, named Loukmane Aba Mouhamad, security sources told Echorouk.

First assistant of AQIM’s leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel, who is one of the first enrolled in armed action in 1993, and who is the armament coordinator in the organization, and is active in Tebessa, Batna, El Oued, Khenchla and Biskra, extends its activity to Tunisia, Libya and the Sahel region.

“The terrorist was accompanied with two senior leaders in the organization, who are Chanbi Khalifa Merkhi, who is also called Aba Nassir, and the leader of a secret sub-battalion in the area of Elma Labyad.”

“Overthrowing these terrorists came after their supervision on the arms’ smuggling to Algeria, then to the strongholds of al-Qaeda after the betrayals among them in the last few months, which caused the elimination of a number of their leaders, including Luqman Abu Sakhr in Tunisia accompanied by eight other terrorists, who were eliminated by the Tunisian troops, following the betrayal that occurred in their ranks after the conflict between Daesh and al-Qaeda, to supervise on the operations which were foiled by the Algerian armed troops thanks to the survey cell and then they eliminated them.” 

“Operations of arms’ seizure that took place on Saturday, in El Oued desert (Southern Algeria), near the Tunisian border, and were identified by the Defense Ministry in a statement, as the largest deals that were concluded by the organization, and were supervised by the field leadership that is directly linked to Droukdel, to avoid any betrayal, but vigilance of the armed troops prevented the passing of this shipment, representing a fatal blow to al-Qaida, which comes just days after another blow by the armed troops against Daesh, through the overthrow of the financial official in the so-called, as he was arrested before sneaking into the Libyan territory.

Process of seizing different weapons in El Oued, two days ago, happened in difficult climatic conditions, that were characterized by wind and sand storms that hampered visibility.