Dja'zara was behind journalists killing in Algeria

An episode of a memoir written by a counterterrorism expert discloses the period in which the violence wave started in Algeria in late 1993 and early 1994.

• The document says a 30-year-old doctor named Abdelouahab Laamara living in Algiers is the founder of the so-called the Jihad Islamic Front. The group was then composed of some intellectuals from the banned Islamic Salvation Group (FIS) which sympathized with the Dja’zara group.
• “The Dja’zara group was created to kill cultural, media, political and union figures who said no to terrorism after they had said no for tainted government,” said the document.
• The group was behind the killing of intellectuals, politicians, journalists and anti-radical activities well-known for criticising the then government.
• “The focus was on those personalities to raise doubts about the reality of who was behind their killings as they opposed the government and terrorists.”
• According to the memoir, arrested terrorists admitted that they were ordered to opposition activists who were against radicalism at the same time.
• The document shows details about the killing of Algerian psychologist Djilali Yabess in Algiers.
• A student from the Jihad Islamic Front tried to shoot the doctor but the gun did not work. When arrested, he told security forces he stabbed the victim many times and killed him.
• “The killer was a student attending classes in a very normal way. He used to work as a taxi driver in his free time.”
• Few months later, security forces killed the murders mastermind. The named S. Nourredine succeeded him but he was shortly killed following information given by arrested terrorists.
• Separately, security forces killed four other terrorists caught at student halls of resident in eastern Algiers.