AQIM Member Arrested with 800 kgs of Explosives

Via reuters.com -

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian security forces arrested a senior member of an Islamist armed group and seized 800 kg (1,765 lbs) of explosives, the official news agency APS reported on Monday.

Bouderbala Fateh, the head of the Algiers section of the al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, was arrested along with two accomplices in a raid after a tip-off from local people, the agency said, quoting a security source.

The agency, which did not state where or when the arrests took place, said the explosives had been ready to go off and were intended for use during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which in Algeria this year began on Sept 13.

Security forces also recovered a rocket, 20 detonators and two schoolchildren's satchels rigged up as bombs.

Bouderbala, also known by the nom de guerre Abdelfatah Abou Bassir, had belonged to several armed groups over the past 14 years including the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb grew out of the GSPC in January after winning approval from Osama bin Laden to rename itself an al Qaeda affiliate.