ALGERIA: The death of Algeria's top militant has robbed al-Qaeda of a potentially key ally in north Africa and may pave the way for an end to the region's longest-running Islamic "holy war", an expert said yesterday.
Nabil Sahraoui, leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), was killed in a gun battle with the armed forces along with his three top aides in eastern Algeria.
His death is significant because he radicalised Algeria's principal Islamic rebel group by aligning it to al-Qaeda, kidnapped 32 European tourists in the Sahara last year, and declared war on foreign individuals and companies in Algeria.
Analysts say in addition to Sahraoui, the head of the committee that picked GSPC commanders and the group's explosives expert were among seven militants killed on Thursday and Friday east of Algiers in an army sweep involving thousands of troops.
"Al-Qaeda has inevitably lost Algeria," said national newspaper L'Expression, adding that one of Osama bin Laden's post-September 11th, 2001, strategies was to extend his network in north Africa.
The United States, which lists GSPC as a terrorist organisation, fears al-Qaeda cells could be seeking new havens in the Sahara desert. The region is seen as a potentially fertile recruiting ground because of weak national governance and lax border policing.
Concern grew after the GSPC's second-in-command, Amari Saifi, alias Abderrazak el Para, secured €5 million for the European hostages and used the money to buy arms. But Saifi is the only senior GSPC member still alive and he is being held by Chadian rebels who are negotiating his transfer to Algerian authorities.
Last year Algeria announced the death of a Yemeni al-Qaeda operative, reported to be in charge of north Africa, along with several GSPC members who were fighting for an Islamic state.
"It's the beginning of the elimination of a terrorist group which more or less remained the only organised Algerian Islamic force since 1992," said Mahmoud Belhimer, a professor at the University of Algiers and a newspaper editor. The holy war or "jihad" was sparked by the army's cancellation of legislative elections a hardline Islamic party was set to win in 1992.
Secular authorities feared a win could turn the oil-rich country into an Islamic state.
More than 150,000 people have since died, mostly civilians at the hands of rebels, according to human rights groups.
The surrender of thousands of rebels following a 1999 amnesty offer and an aggressive military campaign has all but paralysed the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which only a few years ago was the country's top rebel group.
The GSPC was created in 1998 by disillusioned GIA members. It is believed to have some 500 armed members, but security experts and rebel sources say many are keen to surrender, a move Sahraoui opposed.
"The success of the armed forces does not mean terrorism has immediately and definitely been extinguished . . . it can resurface, which is why pressure on these groups must be maintained and intensified," said newspaper Le Quotidien d'Oran.