Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-AQIM-19

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Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-AQIM-19 Update

In The "War of the Cross, we need a Strategy."They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat it again

Signs of a Change in Strategy for AQIMBased in the Sahara and Sahel, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) seeks to rid North Africa of Western influence. The group, which has its origins in the Islamic Armed Group during Algeria’s civil war, has named Spain and France as its main “far enemies”. It has about 1,000 members in Algeria and supporters in Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Tunisia. It is linked to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which was established in 2009 through a merger of the Yemeni and Saudi branches of al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) announced the creation of the “Sahara Emirate” in 2010, although technically the emirate was created by a splinter group from al-Qaeda that later rejoined AQIM.

Jemal Oukacha -- leader of the Sahara branch of AQIM -- said he had formed a Shura Council with Al Mourabitoun to develop a "unified strategy" focusing on targeting "Crusaders" inside and outside Mali, and the French in particular. – Jan 16

"We confirm our commitment and loyalty to the pledge of allegiance to [al Qaeda leader] Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri," his group announced in May last year. Oukacha -- the leader of AQIM in the Sahara -- also emphatically rejected the "Caliphate" – Jan 16

"The Italians and Romans have occupied the land once again, and most important after faith is pushing them away, deterring them, and expelling them from our lands," says the head of AQIM's "Council of Dignitaries," Abu Obeida Yusuf al-'Annabi, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group.

AQIM is recovering from a sequence of divisions and defeats in recent years. After various AQIM affiliates swept across northern Mali in 2012, seizing nearly half the

“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster”― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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country, intervention by the French and several African militaries pushed them out of cities such as Timbuktu and Gao and back into remote desert

regions.But the vast Sahel desert and its mountain ranges were (and are) a refuge for

AQIM commanders like Mokhtar Belmoktar, the most infamous and dangerous of AQIM leaders. Belmoktar is leader of Al Mourabitoun, which carried out another deadly hotel attack in the Malian town of Sevare last August in addition to the Bamako and Ouagadougou attacks.

New Fronts Emerge in Africa’s “Arc of Terrorism”

At the UN Security Council meeting in May 2013, the President of Togo, Faure Essozimna Gnassingé, warned of an arc of terrorism spreading across the continent from Mauritania to Nigeria extending into the Horn of Africa. Since 2013, the so-called arc has continued to spread, engulfing Burkina Faso and other states formally on the periphery of this band of insurgent activity in its wake. A series of attacks on both sides of the African continent have effectively redrawn the boundaries of the struggle taking place between global extremism and counter-terrorism efforts led by regional and international forces.The attack on a luxury hotel in Burkina Faso on January 15, 2016 was an unexpected extension of extremism sweeping the region. Despite attacks taking place at a hotel in Mali in November 2015 and on Grand-Bassam beach in Côte d’Ivoire in March 2016, Burkina Faso was described as being largely “off the radar of Islamist extremist groups.” In light of recent events, the country has now had to contemplate addressing new threats as security experts reassess the risk of extremist activity in the country. The attack, widely reported as “unprecedented” within the country, was described as an “incremental step in the deterioration of the security situation in the greater Sahel region” by The Washington Post. This recent spate of attacks in West Africa has been attributed to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), signaling what reports are now referring to as a “revival” of al Qaeda in Africa.

For years, fighters with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have lurked in the deserts of northern Mali and Algeria, part of an ungoverned swath of land in northwest Africa known as the Sahel. But AQIM and its affiliates appear to have shifted their strategy. Rather than simply fighting Malian, French or U.N. troops in northern Mali, they have launched attacks hundreds of miles from their power base, in some of the region's most peaceful, religiously tolerant cities.There is perhaps no better example of a peaceful, religiously tolerant West African city than Dakar, the capital of Senegal. The country has never had a coup. Its population of 14 million is about 90 percent Muslim, but Christians are widely accepted, hosting public Christmas celebrations. A recent week here brought an international arts festival and a series of public concerts; a flood of amateur surfers took to a local shore break. AQIM isn't the only threat. Senegalese citizens have joined Boko Haram and the Islamic State, according to security officials. Earlier this year, four imams were arrested in the western Senegalese city of Kaolack for alleged connections to Boko Haram. Other Senegalese - roughly a dozen or two - are known to be fighting in Libya and Syria with the Islamic State, officials said. "Senegal will never be safe if there is no security in Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and throughout the [West African] region and beyond in the Sahel," said Ndiaye, the foreign minister.





Despite its long-standing respect for other states' sovereignty, Algiers may have no choice but to militarily intervene in its neighbors' territory. AQIM

had its origins in the fight against Algeria's secular government in the 1990s, after the cancellation of elections that seemed likely to bring Islamists to power. The group expanded to parts of Mali, Mauritania and Niger after formally establishing itself as an al-Qaeda affiliate in 2007. Smaller, more localized groups joined as well, and many refer to AQIM as more of a franchise than a single entity.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon warned that western powers need to step up efforts to help combat militant Islam in west Africa if they want to avoid a fresh flood of migrants escaping terrorism and poverty. Terrorist organisations, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and a breakaway group headed by former AQIM leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, have spread terrorism deeper into west Africa with attacks on international hotels in Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast. Libya has become an important base for Isis.

“If we are not successful, Europe will suffer because you will see more and more migrants going to Europe and among those migrants you will have militants,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “It’s not just an African problem. It’s a really international problem.”

Since the start of the year, nearly half of migrants who arrived in Italy, a stepping-off point for Europe from the African continent, were from west Africa — with Nigeria, Gambia and Ivory Coast making up the highest proportions, according to the International Organisation for Migration. European officials say most migrants are economic refugees and are not fleeing terrorism.

April 04, A military spokesman said Khalid al-Barnawi was captured in Lokoja, capital of the central state of Kogi.The US had placed a $5m (£3.5m) bounty on his head after branding him one of three Nigerian “specially designated global terrorists” in 2012. Ansaru is a splinter group of Nigeria’s largest jihadist group, Boko Haram, known for kidnapping foreigners.

- ISIS rejected the leadership and strategy of core al Qaeda in early 2014, choosing to focus its attacks on Shia “heretics” and the creation of a geographically defined and growing “caliphate.” Both of those strategies were rejected by Ayman Zawahiri, the leading al Qaeda ideologue and the head of the organization since the Americans eliminated Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Al Qaeda and its North African affiliate, AQIM, on the other hand, appear to be playing the long game. And Ansaru is part of that.So, while Ansaru is not a name as widely known as Boko Haram, which is affiliated with the so-called Islamic State, and thus an AQIM competitor in the realm of jihad, terror, and atrocity, Ansaru can be, when it cares to be, just as deadly.Its full Arabic name, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, means: “Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa.”

Signs of a Change in Strategy for AQIM





01/05/2016 | by Barak, Michael (Dr.) Since Al-Mourabitoun merged with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

(AQIM) in December 2015, the latter has experienced significant momentum.[1] Its increased number of terrorist attacks, its intensified operations in Mali, the move of its activities to other parts of the African continent (especially in the Sahel region[2] and Western Africa, such as Burkina Faso), and its success in attacking Western-affiliated institutions as well as claiming many lives and destroying property, indicates an increase in AQIM’s power. The strengthening of AQIM stands out against the backdrop of the Islamic State’s weakening power in various fronts due to latter’s strategic distress as a result of strikes by coalition forces in Iraq and Syria. Abu Abdul Ilah Ahmad, a senior AQIM leader, acknowledged in an interview given to the Palestinian jihadist magazine, Al-Masra, in March 2016 that the merger of the two organizations had significantly increased the organization’s power.[3] The attack on the Radisson Hotel in Bamako on November 22, 2015 was considered the first joint attack by the two organizations, as noted by Abd al-Malik Droukdel Abu Mus‘ab ‘Abd al-Wudud, the leader of AQIM. On January 16, the Splendid Hotel, the “Cappucino” coffee shop next to the hotel, and the “Taxi Brusse” Restaurant in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa, were attacked. 28 people were killed in the attack, including 18 foreign citizens. According to an announcement by the organization, the attack was directed against “the Crusaders who are stealing our treasures and natural resources, and who are damaging our holy places”. It added that the attack was preceded by careful and rigorous planning as well as intelligence gathering in the field. According to the announcement, the target of the attack was considered “one of the most dangerous dens of international espionage in West Africa, especially the Splendid Hotel…from which war against Islam was waged and where deals were made to steal the resources of Muslim lands”. The announcement emphasized that the attack was a link in a chain of terrorist attacks designed to purge Muslim lands of espionage centers, avenge the massacre of Muslim residents of Central Africa, Mali and other African countries, and avenge the debasement of the Prophet Muhammad. The organization added that the attack was intended to serve as a reminder to France and its allies that security is a transient thing and that the people of France will not enjoy security. The announcement concluded with an appeal to the French people to take a stand against the oppressive policies of the French government against Muslims (see banner above).[4] On March 13, six AQIM militants carried out another terrorist attack, which targeted two hotels in the resort town of Grand-Bassam, located next to the beach in Ivory Coast. In the attack, the terrorists opened fire on three hotels, killing 16 people, including four tourists from Europe. The organization praised the fighters for their success in attacking the hotels and explained that the attack was in revenge for France’s military intervention in the Sahel region in Africa.[5] On March 18, the organization attacked the oil and gas field in ‘Ayn Salih, located in southern Algeria, with missiles. Like before, the organization justified the attack as a protest against France’s involvement in Algeria’s participation in the war against Muslims in northern Mali. The organization even threatened to attack Western oil companies in Algeria as a





message to the Algerian regime that the organization has the ability to cause great harm to the country. Indeed, this is a strategic target located 1,300

kilometers south of the capital of Algeria, from which the Algerian national company, the British BP company, and a Norwegian company all operate. In addition to carrying out terrorist attacks, the organization continued to focus its efforts on abducting western citizens. On January 15, 2016 the organization announced that it had kidnapped two Australian citizens, a husband and wife in their 80’s, who ran a clinic in the city of Jibo for over 40 years, on the border of Bukina Faso. The organization stated that the motivation for the kidnapping was its desire to free imprisoned AQIM fighters. Finally, the organization announced that it decided to release the woman, without conditions, as a result of the directive by the leader of Al-Qaeda not to involve women in war.[6] These types of kidnappings serve as a main financing channel for the organization thanks to the ransom that it receives in exchange for the release of hostages. According to records from the “Drug and Crime Bureau”, terrorist organizations in North Africa and the Sahel receive large revenues from the ransoming of captives, as well as drug and weapons smuggling, amounting to 300-400 million dollars.[7]In terms of AQIM’s selection of targets for the terrorist attacks that it carried out in the countries surrounding Mali, it seems that the organization prefers to focus on attacking tourist locations such as hotels, restaurants and bathing beaches that are popular among Western tourists. A possible explanation for AQIM’s focus on Mali’s neighboring countries has to do with the poor security surrounding their tourist spots as well as the organization’s perception of these locations as symbols of French influence in light of their previous status as French colonies. In terms of its modus operandi, the organization prefers to focus on shooting attacks as opposed to explosive devices and suicide bombers. The increased number of terrorist attacks carried out by AQIM indicates that the organization has succeeded in restoring its power since the French invasion of Mali in 2013, and in expanding the terrorist infrastructure in Mali and its surrounding countries. This is due, in part, to the establishment of an array of alliances with local tribes and collaboration with other jihadist organizations in its areas of operation. Munir Adib, a researcher of Islamic movements, noted that jihadist organizations in North Africa identify more with Al-Qaeda than with the Islamic State.[8] Ansar al-Din, for example, stands out as a main ally of Al-Qaeda due to a shared ideological basis and agenda, which are manifested in its war of attrition against the Malian army, French army forces and international forces in northern Mali. During the month of March, for instance, Ansar al-Din claimed responsibility for the launch of missiles at an army base in northern Mali and for the explosion of roadside charges against the Malian army.[9] The leader of a large tribe among the Tuareg in northern Mali, Mohamed Ag Attaye, recently expressed concern over the increasing power of jihadist organizations in the region, and urged the government to start negotiations with local jihadist organizations, such as Ansar al-Din, in order to make peace. According to him, such a step would help to curb the growing power of foreign jihadists in Mali.[10] These statements seem to indicate that AQIM has maximized its appeal among foreign jihad fighters as Mali is again the focus of discourse.Therefore, it is possible to identify several factors underlying the change in AQIM’s strategy and its expansion of power across the Sahel and West Africa:1. The organization’s withdrawal from its traditional stronghold, namely North Africa, due to successful preventative actions taken by the Algerian and Tunisian intelligence agencies in the area. Abu Abdul Ilah Ahmad, a senior AQIM leader, admitted in an interview in March 2016 that the organization was not strong in Tunisi, and that many Tunisian and Libyan jihadists returning to North Africa were not joining the ranks of the organization.





[11] The inability to carry out terrorist attacks with wide media coverage on its “home turf” led the organization to move its operations to the Sahel and

West Africa region.[12]2. The organization’s preference to focus on areas with low governability and failed states where government institutions are unable to provide security for all of its citizens, enforce laws in its territory, or defend its borders. Such a reality encourages non-state actors to enter the existing vacuum and build an extensive infrastructure to serve as a platform for recruiting militants and carrying out terrorist attack.3. The organization’s ability to recruit more easily due to the decades-long neglect, propaganda and exclusion of many residents by the authorities. For example, in Nigeria – which is a Christian country – the Muslim Hausa-Fulani group suffers from discrimination by the government.4. The ideological factor – the aspiration to strike targets belonging to France and its allies in the African continent due to France involvement in Mali’s internal affairs and its operations against jihadists in the region. In the beginning of January 2016, Abu Yahya al Hammam, the emir of AQIM in the Sahara region, explained the organization’s position regarding France to the Mauritanian news agency, Al-Akhbar. According to him, France is waging a persistent war against the mujahideen in Mali and is interfering in the region in order to prevent the mujahideen from seizing control of Bamako, the capital of Mali. He added that France naively thought it had succeeded in eliminating the presence of the mujahideen in Mali following an extensive military operation that it began in 2013. However, in actuality, it did not accomplish anything. He emphasized that prior to the French invasion, the mujahideen were concentrated in northern Mali but today they are scattered throughout the country, and he stressed that “France has become entrenched in Mali’s mud”. According to him, France failed in its mission to unify Mali under a central government and to establish a unified national army, but that “its most notable achievement in the region was the re-division of Mali into militias, separate armed movements that fight against one another”. He threatened that as long as French involvement in Mali continues, the French people will not enjoy security and will be forced to pay a heavy price for its government’s policies.[13]5. The organization’s control over important trade routes that pass through the Sahel and West Africa, and that serve as a central channel for smuggling goods, drugs such as heroin, and even weapons. The use of these trade routes makes it possible for the organization to establish ties and formulate a common economic interest with local smugglers and tribes, such as the Tuareg and Azawad tribes in Mali.6. Against the backdrop of the organization’s competition with the Islamic State for manpower, resources and territory, AQIM strives to curb the power of the Islamic State by increasing its appeal among militants in new territories and carrying out sensational terrorist attacks likely to receive wide media coverage. It is likely that the organization also seeks to prevent fighters from defecting to the ranks of the Islamic State by expanding its operations.SummaryThe move of AQIM’s operations from its traditional area of North Africa, especially Algeria, to new regions in the Sahel and West Africa since the end 2015 indicates a change in the organization’s strategy. The recent wave of terrorist attacks indicates a significant effort invested in expanding the organization’s infrastructure to additional countries in the region that are meant to serve as a platform for carrying out terrorist attacks, recruiting new members and finding additional financing channels.The organization has demonstrated the ability to rehabilitate itself quickly since it suffered





a hard blow by French army forces in 2013. As a result of its collaboration with local jihadist organizations, such as Ansar al-Din, AQIM has managed

to renew its operations in Mali and even to expand into new territories. It seems that the competition with the Islamic State is a central factor at the basis of the expansion of AQIM’s operations, which are aimed at building an Al-Qaeda support bloc by serving as a “dam” to reduce the number of jihadists being swept into the ranks of the Islamic State. In any event, it seems that the wave of terrorist attacks by AQIM is not going to end, but rather will spread to other countries in the Sahel region and the counties surrounding Mali, such as Senegal. The countries of the Sahel and West Africa should rightly be concerned about the security of their tourist centers, hotels, bathing beaches and institutions that are visited by Western tourists, especially French tourists, or by locals who have adapted a Western lifestyle since the organization believes it must purge Africa of their presence. The wave of attacks will almost certainly continue to wash over West Africa and the Sahel.

[1] For further information about the reasons for the merger and about Al-Murabitoun, see: http://www.ict.org.il/Article/1548/The-Unification-between-the-Al-Murabitoun-Organization-and-Al-Qaeda-in-the-Islamic-Maghreb [2] The Sahel region is a region in Africa extending from the western edge to the eastern edge of the continent, and bordered by the Sahara desert in the north and the more fertile, tropical region in the south. It stretches across large parts of the following countries: Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal.[3] Al-Masra, issue 7, March 14, 2016, pp. 4-5.[4] January 18, 2016. http://www.saharamedias.net// - - - عملية- عن تتحدث القاعدة

- - وحلفائها- فرنسا وتحذر a28899.html_ بوركينافاسو[5] March 15, 2016. http://www.akhersaa-dz.com/la_derniere/129060.html [6] February 6, 2016. http://www.almada.org/news/index/171865 [7] February 1, 2016. As quoted in: Al-Husayn al-Shaykh al-‘Alawi, “The Competition between Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Africa”, Al-Jazeera lil-Dirasat Center, http://studies.aljazeera.net/ar/reports/2016/02/2016217925474124.html [8] March 18, 2016. http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/890748.aspx [9] March 25, 2016. http://www.alakhbar.info/news/14884-2016-03-25-16-22-00.html [10] March 14, 2016. http://www.echoroukonline.com/ara/articles/276821.html [11] Al-Masra, issue no. 7, March 14, 2016, pp. 4-5.[12] An exception to this was the In Amenas terrorist attack. For more information about this attack, see: Michael Barak, “The In Amenas Gas Facility Attack – An Analysis of the Modus Operandi”, JWMG Insights, March 2, 2016. http://www.ict.org.il/Article/1626/The-In-Amenas-Gas-Facility-Attack [13] January 10, 2016. http://alakhbar.info/intrep/interv/13563-2016-01-10-18-02-56.html

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Ansaru has proved to be a formidable threat during its short existence, using dynamite to penetrate heavily-fortified compounds and taking foreigners hostage - seven of whom it said it had killed on Saturday.Ansaru was formed in January 2012, though it rose to prominence only about six months later through the release of a video in which it vowed to attack Westerners in defence of Muslims worldwide. "For the first time, we are glad to announce to the public the formation of this group that has genuine basis," said a statement issued by the group in





January 2012 and quoted in local media. "We will have [a] dispassionate look into everything, to encourage what is good and see to its spread and to

discourage evil and try to eliminate it."Its full Arabic name, Jama'atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, means: "Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa".

Watch for More Attacks by al Qaeda’s Shock Troops in AfricaNigeria announces the capture of ‘Ansaru’ chief Khalid al Barnawi. But al Qaeda’s men in Africa are still very dangerous indeed—especially to foreigners.WARRI, Nigeria — First, they attacked the Madison Blu Hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, on Nov. 20, killing at least 21 people, most of whom were foreign nationals.Less than two months later, the same group unleashed another batch of young militants on Burkina Faso’s popular Splendid Hotel and a neighboring café in the capital, Ouagadougou, killing 30 people, including eight Burkinabes, six Canadians, three Ukrainians, three French, and an American.Then, in March, another batch of Islamist militants killed at least 19 people in a gun attack on a beach resort in southern Ivory Coast. Eleven Ivorians lost their lives, and four French citizens were among the dead, as well as one German, one Nigerian, one Macedonian, and one Lebanese. In what is coming to look like a global Islamist insurgency, it is more than likely there will be more such atrocities targeting foreigners in this part of the world, and probably soon. The Nigerian government’s announcement Sunday that it has captured Khalid al Barnawi, the operational chief of the organization, is a positive development, to be sure. But if there is one thing these jihadist organizations have shown, it is their ability to regenerate, and, indeed, to metastasize.The North Africa-based group al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the hotel and resort attacks, including the one in November in Mali, which it said it carried out with its offshoot al-Mourabitoun. But there is growing reason to believe that AQIM’s West African franchise, Ansaru, took part in the operations and that its members are serving as the shock troops for an offensive against foreigners in Africa.The existence and activities of Ansaru reflect the schisms within schisms that have divided the jihadist movements of the Middle East and Africa, even as they have spread. The overarching split is between the original core al Qaeda, responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. in 2001, and the spin-off now known as the Islamic State, or ISIS, which grew out of the al Qaeda affiliated resistance to American occupation of Iraq after 2003.ISIS rejected the leadership and strategy of core al Qaeda in early 2014, choosing to focus its attacks on Shia “heretics” and the creation of a geographically defined and growing “caliphate.” Both of those strategies were rejected by Ayman Zawahiri, the leading al Qaeda ideologue and the head of the organization since the Americans eliminated Osama bin Laden in 2011.Over the last two years, ISIS has waged a brilliant campaign to expand its brand and its influence, enlisting many affiliates in the Middle East and Africa, and taking its war most recently, to the heart of Europe, with attacks in Paris and Brussels. But as veteran terrorism expert Brian Jenkins points out in a new report for Rand, there may be less to the global reach of ISIS—with its wilayaat, or governorates in Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Tunisia, the North Caucasus, and elsewhere—than meets the eye.Those beyond the territory ISIS administers and defends in Iraq and Syria are “aspirational,” says Jenkins. “In some graphics, the emergence of one affiliate puts the





entire country under the Islamic State, but this is misleading,” he writes. “These are outposts of like-minded fanatics—advance parties in a few places,

not armies of occupation.”

Al Qaeda and its North African affiliate, AQIM, on the other hand, appear to be playing the long game. And Ansaru is part of that.So, while Ansaru is not a name as widely known as Boko Haram, which is affiliated with the so-called Islamic State, and thus an AQIM competitor in the realm of jihad, terror, and atrocity, Ansaru can be, when it cares to be, just as deadly.

Its full Arabic name, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, means: “Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa.”Ansaru announced that it split from Boko Haram in January 2012, claiming that Boko Haram was “inhuman” for killing innocent Muslims as well as for targeting defectors. The move reflected the developing divisions between al Qaeda and the ISIS trends at the time.

The context, or the politics, if you will, is local. Ansaru says it is fighting to restore the “lost dignity” of the Sokoto Caliphate, which was founded in 1804 by the Fulani Sheikh Usman dan Fodio in northern Cameroon, northern Nigeria, and southern Niger, and lasted until the United Kingdom and France colonized the region and introduced Western education and Christianity later in the 19th century.Unlike Boko Haram which is notorious for its indiscriminate shootings and bombings, Ansaru, which says it eschews the killing of fellow Nigerians, prefers a more calculated approach: kidnapping and killing foreigners.The group was founded by little-known Abu Usmatul al Ansari (sometimes written Abu Ussamata al-Ansary), believed to have been trained by AQIM in Algeria. But his name is rarely mentioned in connection with Ansaru attacks. It’s the 47-year-old Khalid al Barnawi, another AQIM-trained jihadist, who gets most of the credit.Al Barnawi, captured last Friday, has been regarded by many of Ansaru’s militants as the “active” leader of the group. The jihadist was labeled a “global terrorist” in 2012 by the U.S. government alongside his lieutenant, Abubakar Adam Kambar, another AQIM-trained Ansaru militant who was killed. The U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward for “information that brings to justice” al Barnawi.Al Barnawi, along with another Algeria-trained protégé known as Abu Muhammed led the al Qaeda group that kidnapped and later killed British national Chris McManus and an Italian engineer, Franco Lamolinara, in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kebbi.

In a proof-of-life video showing the two hostages blindfolded and kneeling in front of three masked militants, a previously unknown group, al Qaeda in the Lands Beyond the Sahel, which experts believe evolved into Ansaru, admitted that it was responsible for the abduction.The video was sent to the Mauritanian-based Agence Nouakchott d’Information (ANI), which usually receives AQIM videos. The jihadists also employed the same Mauritanian negotiator that AQIM used in a number of previous kidnappings, this time demanding $6 million and the release of prisoners in West Africa in return for the two hostages.

Since AQIM was formed in 2006, the group has sought to expand its operations from southern Algeria southwards into Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria with the aim of targeting foreigners in the southern Sahel.Achieving this objective on its own would have been difficult as its North African militants did not master the region’s human and physical terrain as well as they had ideologies and aspirations of the desert-dwelling Tuaregs. So the jihadists changed their





strategy from recruiting sub-Saharan Africans to helping them form their own groups with local ideologies that appealed to people in the region in a

way that AQIM’s ideology did not. Hence the historical context put forth by Ansaru.In this vein, AQIM oversaw the formation both of Ansaru and the Mali-based

Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), which later became part of al Murabitoun, a notorious Islamist group led by AQIM founding member Mokhtar Belmokhtar.The way these organizations split off and spin off suggests just how difficult it is to identify, target, and disrupt the activities of jihadist groups whose venomous heads multiply more quickly than those of the mythical Hydra.Ansaru’s al Barnawi, for instance, trained under Belmokhtar and even fought under the militant leader in Mauritania and Algeria in the mid 2000s when the terror kingpin was military commander of AQIM. MUJAO’s military commander, Oumar Ould Hamaha, an Arab from northern Mali and a relative of Belmokhtar’s, had been an AQIM kidnapping mastermind. The two groups also adopted names that explained their desired areas of operation. Ansaru’s Biladis Sudan translates to Black Africa while MUJAO’s Gharb Afriqqiya translates to West Africa.The two terror groups had designated areas of operations at their creation and may have been the elite units AQIM trained for attacking Western interest in the Sahel. Ansaru operated in northern Nigeria and southern Niger, and MUJAO operated in Mali, Senegal, Algeria, and Mauritania. Both groups considered themselves to be the ideological descendants of Usman dan Fodio and other pre-colonial West African Islamic leaders who fought the colonial invaders.AQIM has always taken responsibility for attacks, especially those carried out by Ansaru. When German engineer, Edgar Fritz Raupach, was kidnapped in Nigeria’s northwestern city of Kano on Jan. 26, 2012, the same day Ansaru announced its split from Boko Haram by circulating flyers in Kano, AQIM’s official media wing, al Andalus, took credit for the abduction. In a video sent to ANI in Mauritania it demanded that Germany release from prison a Turkish-born female jihadist website administrator whose German husband fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan and was arrested in 2007 while planning to bomb Ramstein Air Base, a key American installation in Germany.Nigerian forces then carried out a rescue operation of Raupach in May 2012, but the captors shot the German immediately. AQIM, rather than Ansaru, again warned European nations against using force to resolve kidnappings and specifically warned Germany to stop violating Muslim holy sites.Ansaru up until this time never took responsibility for attacks it carried out, rather, it always let AQIM take the credit, despite evidence that AQIM did not operate directly in Nigeria.In the case of Raupach, security sources said the German’s abduction had been masterminded by Ansaru’s Abu Mohammad, whom Nigerian authorities say died in custody of gunshot wounds sustained during his arrest in the northwestern town of Kaduna.“This group (Ansaru) doesn’t always take responsibility for its attacks,” said Ushie Michael, a prominent Nigerian security analyst. “They just want to do what AQIM wants them to do.”After the death of Abu Mohammad, and the disappearance of his mentor, Khalid al Barnawi, Ansaru became loosely organized. Its militants began to travel up north into Mali to realign with the parent group, AQIM.The report in 2012 that dozens of Nigerian militants attacked the Algerian consulate in





northern Mali and in 2013 that Ansaru literature was found in Belmokhtar’s compound in Gao the day after he fled the city did appear to confirm that

Ansaru’s operation was now coordinated from Mali.“Many of Ansaru’s militants are well trained, well educated, and have huge respect for al Qaeda’s leadership in Algeria,” said Mohammed Yusuf, an Arabic scholar based in Nigeria’s northeastern Maiduguri. “They see their mentors as lords and will do anything for them.” In a New York Times dispatch from 2013, an Ansaru militant, Mujahid Abu Nasir, said he considered notorious AQIM commander Abu Zeid to be a personal mentor and “a wise somebody.”Al Qaeda recruited this same Abu Nasir while he was in Khartoum for studies. His recruiters took him to the southern deserts of Algeria and later to Mauritania for a rigorous training course by AQIM. For six months, Abu Nasir said, he trained directly under Abu Zeid who was later killed by Chadian or French forces in the campaign to uproot Islamist militants in northern Mali. He said of five people who came with him from Sudan, two died during training. “Everything the security forces get, we get double that,” he said of Ansaru’s training system.The jihadist, who attended an Islamic college in Kano before moving to Sudan, said Ansaru had been motivated by al Qaeda itself, trained by its North African affiliate, AQIM, and was following in both their footsteps.It is this background that has led some analysts to conclude Ansaru is providing the shock troops for AQIM’s attacks on tourists and other foreigners in sub-Saharan Africa.In the attack in Mali for instance, famous Guinean singer Sekouba “Bambino” Diabate, who was staying in the hotel when the incident occured, said he heard attackers speaking in English “with a Nigerian accent” about their weapons being loaded.Nigerians speak with a very unique accent different from the rest of Africa, and so it’s relatively easy for anyone who has regularly interacted with a home-grown Nigerian to recognize where he or she comes from, more so for a talented singer like Diabete, who has interacted with a number of Nigerian singers.A clearer picture is seen in the Burkina Faso attacks. Not long after the operation, AQIM published photographs of three adolescent men said to have carried out the Ouagadougou hits. The militants were given the names Battar al Ansari, Abu Muhammad al Buqali al Ansari, and Ahmed al Fulani al Ansari.“Al-Ansari” (which originates from the Arabic word, “Ansar,” meaning “supporters”), is the surname of Ansaru’s founder, Abu Usmatul al-Ansari. The name “Ansaru” equally originated from Ansar.AQIM typically renames its fighters, usually according to the area or unit the militant comes from. Analysts who study AQIM’s operations closely say, predictably, that the group uses al Ansari for fighters from Ansaru to indicate the origins of the “brigade.”Last year, a 15-year-old boy who was recruited by a militant group in northern Mali, believed to be AQIM, told The Daily Beast that he was given a new name by the jihadists just as he arrived camp. He was named “Abu Bakr Konana.” Some of his colleagues who joined the group at the same time also got the surname “Konana,” which may be the name designated to young men from Mali’s Timbuktu region where the young boys were recruited.When I asked him if he came in contact with anyone from Nigeria during his time with the militants, Seydou said his colleagues often mocked Abu al Ansari because the Nigerian couldn’t communicate in French or the local Songhay language.Some evidence of Ansaru’s involvement also exists in the most recent Ivory Coast attacks. A number of witnesses said the killers didn’t speak a word of French, which they mostly





likely would have done if they had come from Mali or from the French-speaking countries surrounding it. The gunmen, witnesses said,

communicated to their hostages in English and Arabic, languages spoken comfortably by Ansaru militants.“They don’t like to talk about what they’ve done,” says Ushie Michael, noting that the group has taken direct responsibility for only a handful of gun attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria. “They prefer to work, while AQIM does the talking. It is AQIM that pays, not the other way round.” Together, they are playing the long game.




Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 4-1-AQIM-19

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