Security forces intercepted a Jeep near the Libyan border that was carrying five suspected members of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, along with weapons including antitank missiles and submachine guns. In the ensuing gunbattle, three militants were killed, two were captured, and documents belonging to AQIM leadership were confiscated.

Last orders: Algeria state closes tap on bars

Algerian Islamic leader opposes election

An Algerian Islamist leader threatened a Tunisian-type revolt. The threat came after parliamentary elections in which opposition parties claimed widespread fraud by the government.

Algerian government struggles to interest population in elections dubbed freest in 20 years

Algeria Islamists dream of Arab Spring factor

Algeria’s new Islamists won’t rock the boat

CERN Scientist Sentenced to 5 Years in Terrorism Case

Smuggling stirs trouble on Tunisia’s Libya border

Analysis: Mali: from democracy poster child to broken state

Global military spending flattens as US cuts back, Russia adds

French Cabinet OKs new anti-terrorism measures

Sahara states at odds over Mali rebels

Algeria Promises Libya It Will Rein in Gaddafi Family

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, an al Qaeda splinter group, claimed credit for a suicide attack against gendarmes in Tamanrasset that wounded 22 people. The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa was established in December 2011 to conduct attacks in West Africa.

Algerian Islamists agree on alliance ahead of vote

Algeria seizes missiles smuggled from Libya

Four civilians were killed and 10 more were wounded, some critically, in an IED attack on a road outside of Algiers. Security forces seized a large weapons cache near In Amenas which included “shoulder fired missiles” thought to have been smuggled from Lybia.

Is an Arab Spring in the air for Algeria?

Insight: Arms and men out of Libya fortify Mali rebellion

Libya: Algeria, Libya sign accord to fight cross-border arms trade

Al-Qaeda’s hand in Boko Haram’s deadly Nigerian attacks

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb sought to ram explosives-laden boats into Western ships traveling in the Mediterranean.

In Mali, a Tuareg rebellion – without Gadhafi

Boko Haram got al Qaeda bomb training, Niger says

Threat Level Rising: How African Terrorist Groups Inspired by al-Qaeda Are Gaining Strength

Algeria has begun the trial of Mukhtar Belmukhtar, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s leader in southern Algeria. Belmukhtar and four other AQIM fighters are being tried in absentia for acts of terrorism. Five other AQIM fighters on trial are in custody.

An Algerian court sentenced Nadji Abdelaziz, a former Guantanamo detainee, to three years in prison on Monday. Abdelaziz served both Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda, according to memos prepared by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb fighters kidnapped the governor of Illizi in the southeastern region of Algeria near the Libyan border. The AQIM fighters are thought to have taken the governor across the border into Libya.

Military officials claimed they have killed a top Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leader. Mohand Ouramdane and his second in command were reportedly killed in an ambush by Algerian troops in the town of Azib Ahmed, about 3 km east of Tizi Ouzou. An Algerian court sentenced in absentia Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, one of the most radical AQIM leaders, to life in prison for creating “an international terror group.”
