“An AQIM chieftain declares having acquired Libyan weapons”

A chieftain of the so-called Al Qaida in de Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has affirmed that his organization acquired Libyan weapons during the recent conflict which brought about the ouster of Muammar Kadhafi and his regime.

• In a statement to the private Mauritanian news agency (ANI) Mokhtar Belmokhtar said that AQIM was the utmost beneficiary of the revolutions in the Arab world stressing that the acquisition by his organization of Libyan arms was a quite “normal” thing, as he put it.
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• Mokhtar Belmokhtar who is of Algerian origin, advised the former Libyan rebels not to lay down arms after Kadhafi’s death, stressing that the main objective of the Libyan revolution for these revolutionary fighters should be the setting up of an Islamist regime in Libya.
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• The AQIM leader also admitted the existence of what he called “ideological relations” between his organization and the “young Islamist fighters” stressing however that AQIM elements had not fought with them on the ground against the Kadhafi loyalists.
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