Is Al Qaeda's influence spreading to Morocco?
Islamists are charged with plotting to attack the US Embassy in Rabat.
from the April 6, 2007 edition
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The Moroccan Islamic Combat Group, Tunisia Islamic Fighting Group, and an Algerian group that recently renamed itself Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb "have a presence in the Federally Administered Tribal Area [in Pakistan] and without exception all those groups are in Iraq," says Mr. Gunaratna.
Thus the concern that "amateur hour" for Moroccan militants may be over if fighters return from Iraq with greater expertise. "Many people are worried about North Africans going to Iraq," says Kohlmann, noting that groups from across the region have been suicide bombers in Iraq. "The concern is these Moroccans are going to learn things in Iraq, come back, and link up with Algeria."
Once considered on the verge of extinction, Algerian militants have made a startling resurgence in recent weeks. Since officially joining Al Qaeda in September, under the new name Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, they've launched a string of attacks against foreign workers as well as Algerian police and soldiers. The group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, has spent years fighting the Algerian government.
In January, the head of the group issued an open letter that amounted to a call to arms and a statement of targets broader than the Algerian government. "As for the evil alliance that is led by America militarily, by France culturally, and backed by NATO, the joining of Algeria [alongside it] and the deceleration of allegiance to you [Osama bin Laden] has become a lump in their throats and heartache in their chests," said Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, also known as Abdelmalek Droukdal in the message posted on Kohlmann's website.
In recent weeks in Algeria "there has been an unprecedented set of attacks targeting foreign workers and these communiqués being putting out," says Kohlmann, noting that Algerian militants appear to be using tactics learned from insurgents in Iraq.
Morocco's Interior Ministry says they haven't found links between militant Moroccan groups and Al Qaeda. Indeed, a March 11 suicide bombing in a busy Internet cafe in a Casablanca slum killed only the bomber who appeared to have set it off in panic after a cafe owner told him to stop looking at jihadi websites. But the Ministry of Interior said the veteran Algerian militants rebranding themselves as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb may serve to "inspire" Moroccans seeking jihad.
Falah Abdejalil lives next to the Internet cafe in Casablanca's slum where the suicide bomber killed himself March 11. He says the horror of what he saw that day keeps him up at night. Still, he says, he knows why a young man would resort to violence.
"You know the reason this man blew himself up? George W. Bush. Bush loves his dog more than the Muslim people," he says, pretending to kiss a dog while standing in the street outside his house surrounded by friends who, like him and many Moroccans, can't find a job.
Next week: Security efforts versus Moroccan judicial reforms.
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