Algeria's al Qaeda bust

NY Times:

The Algerian Army has killed the leader of North Africa's largest and most dangerous Islamic terrorist organization in a gun battle east of the Algerian capital, Algiers, according to the country's official news agency, culminating an intense government drive against Al Qaeda's affiliates in the region.

The death of Nabil Sahraoui, the leader of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, follows earlier reports that the group's founder, Hassan Hattab, is dead and comes during an Algerian operation to try to take custody of another of the group's leaders, Amari Saifi, from a Chadian rebel group in the Sahara.

The group's leadership has been "completely neutralized" in a "vast antiterrorist operation," an Algerian military officer was quoted as saying by the APS news agency.

...

Terrorism experts regard the group as North Africa's largest, best organized and best financed Islamic terrorist group, with links to Al Qaeda and with operatives across Europe. The group, an offshoot of Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, has been fighting to establish an Islamic state in North Africa and has also plotted to carry out terrorist attacks in Europe.

Mr. Sahraoui assumed the leadership after a power struggle with Mr. Hattab, a veteran of the Armed Islamic Group who founded the Salafist group in 1998. According to some accounts, Mr. Sahraoui regarded Mr. Hattab as too moderate and reluctant to ally the group with Al Qaeda. In October, Mr. Sahraoui issued a statement that said, "We strongly and fully support Osama bin Laden's jihad against the heretic America."


Good job Algeria.

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