Al-Qaeda Murders Its Way Across the Sahara
A suicide bomber attacks a French embassy in Mauritania in response to Sarkozy's stance on the burqa.
It barely made the news.
On the evening of August 8, a suicide bomber wearing a belt full of explosives approached the exterior walls of the French embassy in Mauritania’s capital city of Nouakchott. He shouted “Allahu akbar” and blew himself up. Two embassy security guards, or gendarmes, and another person were injured.
Ten days later, al-Qaeda’s North African arm — al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) — claimed responsibility. Reuters identified the bomber as a local jihadist named Abu Obeida Musa al-Basri.
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is one of those countries that 99 percent of the people on the planet outside of Mauritania would not be able to place on a map. Located north of Senegal and south of Western Sahara and Algeria, it is one of the poorest, most illiterate, most draconian places in the world. Slavery, allegedly outlawed in the 1980s, remains in full bloom. Former Mauritanian slave and human rights activist Boubacar Messaoud recently told legislators in Washington that an estimated 500,000 people among the country’s population of 3.3 million still live as slaves.
What a perfect place for al-Qaeda to sow seeds. But why now?
Six weeks ago, an American missionary named Christopher Leggett was shot in the head and killed as he crossed the street in Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital; al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. In 2007 four French tourists, including two children, were killed in the southern Mauritanian town of Aleg; three AQIM jihadists are awaiting trial. But before the French embassy was attacked, there had been no suicide bombings on record in the country.
“This operation came in reaction to the hostility of the Crusaders — led by France — and their apostate agents against Islam and its people,” AQIM declared in a statement earlier this week, which included photographs of the now dead suicide bomber posing with weapons on a desert backdrop.
Targeting France is a leap from AQIM’s earlier stated goal, which focused on targeting Jews and Americans. The Jamestown Foundation reports that AQIM leader Abu Anas Abd al-Rahman al-Shinqiti recently appeared in a video denouncing any form of democracy in Mauritania and promising attacks on Western facilities throughout North Africa for meddling. “Democracy will lead to Jewish-American occupation [of Mauritania] and to the proliferation of the parties of Satan,” he declared.
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Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation and intelligence. She blogs at TheAviationNation.com and is working on a new book for Little Brown and Company.
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12 Comments
1. logdon:This is islamic imperialism, nothing less and a confirmation of the hypocrisy of the religion.
Whilst they berate Israel for it’s ‘occupation of the West Bank’ they will cheerfuly attempt to ‘occupy’ any nation they settle in and dictate any terms they chose.
Hence in France and my native England we witness these arrested development sufferers attemting to call the shots, time after time.
Our own Shahid Malik newly appointed Communities Minister bawls for separate treatment within Britain for Muslims.
This man is a known and proven expenses cheat, a criminal if he was not one of the protested species in government, and man who calls for the Islamisation of Britain at a conference yet our dhimmi idiots who think they run the country elevate him.
We, in Britain have had enough.
Looks like France has too and the popular political move rightwards is, at last recognising the game these cuckoos are playing.
Aug 27, 2009 - 3:10 am 2. Marie Claude:The Mauritanian suicide bomber was still an “amateur”, not well awared of the AQ practices, while he was walking towards the french embassy, 2 “gendarmes, off-duty, were jogging on his way, and it’s when he saw these 2 men runnning “to him” that he blow himself up.
Though he was a member of the Saharian AQ organisation that is tied to the Algerian “GSPC”, they are partly GIA dissidents, bandits, trafficants, deceipteds from inter-Saharian conflicts about borders (Polisario.
But Algerians jihadists pull the strings
http://www.afrik.com/article13252.html
BTW) one of the two french agents taken in hostage in Somalia escaped yesterday, he took benefit of the Ramadan opportunity, while his geolers were tired and or asleep, he managed to force the door of his geole.
Aug 27, 2009 - 5:02 am 3. Paul -Indiana:But .. but .. but .. if we are nice to them won’t they be nice to us?
Aug 27, 2009 - 5:04 am 4. e:The good news is that a majority of the population don’t like these terrorists either.
The bad news is that they don’t speak out against this because they would risk physical harm in doing so. The worse news is that apologists and sympathizers for terrorists isn’t going down, helped in no small part by radicalization of mosques and de facto enforcement of Sharia standards on the general public by radicals.
Psychologists know ways to remove brainwashing, but its not viable considering the situation.
In better news today is beautiful and the temperature is nice. Have a great day!
Aug 27, 2009 - 5:22 am 5. Peter the Bubblehead:~e
“On the evening of August 8, a suicide bomber wearing a belt full of explosives approached the exterior walls of the French embassy in Mauritania’s capital city of Nouakchott. He shouted “Allahu akbar” and blew himself up.”
I’m waiting for some liberal to yell “It’s Bush’s Fault!”
Aug 27, 2009 - 6:08 am 6. Lynn:Of course it barely makes the news; Some might call it the ‘inconveinient truth’, something our modern news organizations filter through every day in order that we might be fed a steady diet of news that covers up the real agenda of the Islamists. DEATH.
Death for Allah. Death because Allah demands it. His kingdom come his will be done.
Allah is not Great, Allah is Greater. Know that and you MIGHT live.
Aug 27, 2009 - 7:19 am 7. Grover:The evidence for all to see is that Islam is not a peaceful religion at all! Bush was wrong – it IS a religion of evil because it requires death to any and all who do not agree with Muhammad’s words. God says “THOU SHALT NOT KILL”! That’s clear, is it not? Christ is God, Muhammad and Allah ARE NOT!
Aug 27, 2009 - 7:49 am 8. Bohemond:Oh, they were forced to do it by colonialism, or white imperialism, or racism, or what some non-Muslim said, or poverty, or something. You just know the libs will come up with a lame excuse to justify this- after all they’re “prople of color” and hence morally pre-justified.
It’s not just the Mahgreb, either: it’s going on in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Nigeria… pretty much everywhere the Followers of Mahound can be found.
Aug 27, 2009 - 8:18 am 9. Rashputin:Bohemond – (8)
You forgot low self-esteem, I’m sure that’s a factor after the US having the gall to exist for over 200 years.
Regards
Aug 27, 2009 - 8:47 am 10. anton:Islamism, like Communism, is a cult, an insane political ideology that justifies theft and opression. No sane person would ever subscribe to this nonsense so they must be forced into it by their self-appointed “betters”. The only enthusiasts for either creed are the people that think they will end up in charge. Every place they have taken control of has descended into chaos and decay. Damn them.
Aug 27, 2009 - 9:45 am 11. Dr. Bukk:Tunisia has banned the face-covering veils, and is enjoying a resurgence of tourism, and the extremists have gone.
Our president goes to Cairo and declares the West has a ways to go regarding women’s rights, such as the right to wear the veil.
Un-freaking-believable!
Not to mention his support of Chavez’s buddy Manual Zedala in the Honduras so-called coup.
Aug 27, 2009 - 11:37 am 12. Leatherneck:Just Google allah, and you will read all about a moon god 5000 years old. Mosques still have the moon on top with the morning star.
The morning star within the New Order of the Ages is a named used for whom? I will not tell you, but with all the murder the religion of peace does, one should be able to guess.
We can understand now why Mulims are allowed into the West.
Aug 27, 2009 - 1:58 pm