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Article: Salafist splits: Al Qaeda plans to establish a new network across the Maghreb are threatened by growing fracture within Algerian core group.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- January 1, 2008
- Author:
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THE RECENT UPSURGE in jihadist attacks across North Africa, particularly the revival of terrorist attacks in the region's urban centres and the growing use of suicide bombers, underlines how Al Qaeda is steadily expanding its influence in the Maghreb.
In September 2006, Algeria's Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC) announced its alliance with Al Qaeda and in January 2007 renamed itself "Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM).
In November 2007, Ayman Al Zawahiri, long considered Osama bin Laden's No. 2, but increasingly seen as the organisation's operational leader, declared in an ...