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The Mutating Threat

(U.S. News) Kevin Whitelaw - Authorities fear that they have unearthed only the tip of a larger network of North African militants in Europe, many tied to the Algeria-based Salafist Group for Call and Combat (in French, GSPC). The group has developed an extensive European exile support network, now with much broader ambitions. Some U.S. officials now believe that the GSPC, after years of contacts with al-Qaeda leaders, has formally allied itself with bin Laden. GSPC operatives have been implicated in several serious plots, including Ahmed Ressam's attempt to blow up the Los Angeles airport in 1999 and one against the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, in 2000. The GSPC kidnapped 32 European tourists in the Algerian desert in 2003, and more recently claimed responsibility for an attack on a remote Mauritanian Army post that killed 15 soldiers. U.S. officials say they have picked up signs that the GSPC is working with Zarqawi to direct foreign fighters to Iraq. Some U.S. officials believe there might be times when Zarqawi is receiving more foreign fighters than his group can safely absorb and that some could get diverted to North Africa to reinforce the GSPC.
2005-12-21 00:00:00
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