Al Qaeda's North African offensive

Judith Apter Klinghoffer:

This Le Monde Diplomatique report on the inroads made by Al Qaeda in North Africa is so alarming (most especially to France) that I have posted it in its entirety bellow. It ends thus:

The dynamics of internationalisation are also apparent in the descriptions of the fighters. One video report praises Munir the Tunisian, head of a GSPC training camp in Algeria. Another focuses on a joint operation with the Mauritanian mujahideen.

To underline the strength of unity across Arab North Africa, there are party scenes showing Algerian, Moroccan, Libyan, Tunisian and Mauritanian jihadis making merry together while al-Qaida chants sound across the vast emptiness of the Sahara.

Import of jihad and martyrdom Algeria’s al-Qaida franchise By Mathieu Guidère

...

Read the rest at the link above. Our enemy is disbursing his meager forces around the old world. Part of this is because of the danger too him of concentrating his forces in places like Afghanistan and Iraq where they have been destroyed when they have made contact with US and allied forces. Another reason is classic guerrilla war strategy of attempting to build insurgencies in other areas in order to require more opposing forces to deal with them, i.e. a distraction.