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Al-Qaeda in Iraq claims deadly Baghdad bombings

/ By / In security

A militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq says it was behind the wave of bombings in Baghdad on Tuesday which killed more than 50 people.

The Islamic State of Iraq described the violence as “the first drop of rain”, after which it would have its “revenge” for those executed by the authorities.

On Monday, the justice minister said “nothing” would halt the executions of militants guilty of capital offences.

The bombings also came on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.

Although violence has decreased in Iraq since the peak of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, attacks are still common and at least 220 civilians were killed in February.

‘Quick response’

At least 50 people died and 160 others were wounded in the co-ordinated wave of suicide, car and roadside bombings in and around Baghdad during Tuesday’s morning rush hour.

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Al-Qaeda in North Africa

/ By / In security

Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), to give its full name in English, has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the early 1990s, but has since evolved to take on a more international Islamist agenda.

Its reach has also expanded across the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, attracting members from Mauritania, Morocco, Niger and Senegal as well as from within Mali where, in alliance with other Islamists, it is fighting French troops on the ground.

During the Mali crisis, its fighters have dramatically increased their profile, allowing them to further their aim of spreading Islamic law and jihad across West Africa.

AQIM’s influence over other nascent Islamist cells comes from its wealth: it is one of the region’s best-armed groups thanks to the money it makes from kidnapping Westerners and drug and cigarette trafficking across the Sahara.

It emerged in early 2007, after a feared militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), aligned itself with Osama Bin Laden’s international network.
Back in the 1990s, against a background of Islamist political groups testing their strength across North Africa, the military-backed authorities in Algeria at first permitted the Islamists to play a full part in the nation’s political life.

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