Magharebia: ‘Tunisian salafist[s] announce al-Qaeda support’

Magharebia reports:

Tunisian salafist jihadists announced their allegiance to al-Qaeda this week, accepting the group’s invitation to wage a holy war.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s call on Sunday (March 17th) to fight the French, westerners, secularists and other so-called “enemies” was welcomed by Tunisian salafist jihadists, the movement’s leader, Mohamed Anis Chaieb, told Assabah.

“The statement posted by AQIM calls for the preservation of the gains of the Tunisian revolution and the salafist jihadist movement will heed this call and defend these gains,” the movement’s leader, Mohamed Anis Chaieb told Assabah.

He added that the “onslaught of secularism” is what made sheikhs and al-Qaida urge young people in the Maghreb not to leave their countries because “these lands had become vulnerable”.

This was the first time for Tunisia’s salafist jihadist groups to officially announce their allegiance to al-Qaeda, though some of their leaders were known to be linked to the terrorist organisation.

This is the case of Ansar al-Sharia leader Saif Allah bin Hussein (aka Abou Iyadh), who is currently being investigated by security services.

Hopefully, there will be more on what this exactly entails in the near future. For now, I’m just passing along this report.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

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Tags: Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar al Sharia Tunisia, AQIM, Tunisia