New details in the kidnapping of Westerners by the Salafist Group

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, under the leadership of Abdelmalek Droudkel, adopted the kidnapping of six westerners in the Nigerian and Malian borders, because two Mauritanian terrorists are still detained in an African Sahel country that includes Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Chad, where negotiations are still ongoing in order to release the six hostages. The Salafist Group, counts at least 40 Mauritanian terrorists, including suicide bombers, sources from Mali say.  

• French News Agency quoted a Malian official source Friday “The Salafist Group is demanding the release of two Mauritanian members as one of the conditions for freeing two Canadians and four European tourists it has kidnapped”.
• This is the second time Droudkel sets terms of release for two Mauritanian members; the first one was the release of the two Austrian tourists after two Mauritanian members belonging to the “Masked” battalion led  by the so called Mokhtar Belmokhtar “Al Aouar” were freed. Droudkel’s group received the ransom of 2.5m euro, half the amount previously required.
• Observers think that the GSPC’s Mauritanian members may be leaders of the smuggling networks of the Sahel region, which supported and financed the terrorist group using the borders. They also believe that they are jailed in Mali, where they enjoy important status and concideration, that’s why Droudkel is setting such terms of release.
• Observers make various scenarios, including that the Salafist Group is searching, through kidnapping westerners, for fame which may put it in the front pages after series of losses, and in order to cover up its inability to carry out attacks in its main strongholds

• Al Aouar’s role in kidnapping

• The Slafist Group resorted to kidnapping operations in light of the urgent need for cash to buy arms and supplies, and to recruit new terrorists in coordination with smuggling networks of the Sahel region, after it succeeded in obtaining a ransom for releasing the two Austrian hostages.
• Identity of the terrorist group, responsible for kidnapping, is not yet determined and may be there are two terrorist groups behind the two operations.
• The role of Belokhtar, the leader of the ninth region who withdrew from the Salafist Group and begun negotiations to surrender remain unknown despite his name was mentioned in the kidnapping of the two Austrian tourists last year.
• The adoption of the kidnapping operations by the Salafist Group and the holding of the conference on security in the Sahel region in Bamako happened in the same time, a message to say that terrorists are still able to implement attacks across the borders, however, Droudkel’s terrorist operations, according to many observers, are serving the American ambitions and give it justification for establishing military bases “Africom”. This topic was raised by the magazine “Army” under “The foreign military basis, a struggle for power, oil and geopolitical plans”, it reiterated Algeria’s opposition “Algerian sovereignty is not discussed and we can not open the gate to the foreign military plans under any justification, including combating terrorism.