Leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb says Nigerians, Malians and North Africans fight in Algeria: Interview

The leader of the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Abdelmalek Droudkel told a US newspaper that Ben Laden’s Al-Qaeda supplies his organisation and vice versa with any kind of support, loyalty, advice and available support.

• In a audio tape broadcast by New York Times Tuesday, Droudkel said a considerable number of his fighters come from Mauritania, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Mali and Niger.
• On the other hand, he did not reveal the nature of Al-Qaeda’s support.
• According to him, the affiliation to Al-Qaeda which was announced in the beginning of 2006 came to unify Muslims and defend their causes against crusaders’ crimes in Palestine, Iraq and other countries.
•  On the other hand, he did not say why his organisation did not declare jihad in Palestine as his goal is to recover Muslims’ rights.
• The Salafist Group’s leader talked for the firs time about contacts with Al-Qaeda. He said communication channels were not only limited in Abu Musab Al-Zarkaoui, Al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq. “The affiliation process was also based on other channels.”
• He avoided mentioning names behind the communication channels. “We do not want to state certain people but there was contribution from many of brothers in making contacts with our brothers at Al-Qaeda.”
• He also revealed contacts with the organisation’s activists in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries in the world.
• Abu Musab Abdelouadou denied that the Algerian security forces had weakened his organisation’s operational abilities. “Western interests cannot be protected and they will get their share also as we did with the U.N. and the Interpol headquarters and the embassy of Israel in Nouakchott, and the German hostages, then the Austrians,” he said.
• Droudkel tried to wash hands of targeting innocents in his terrorist acts. “If we really wanted to strike the civilians, we could have reaped hundreds in one strike by targeting the markets and the transportation and the public gatherings.”