The Maghreb, or "the West" in Arabic, is slowly turning into a crucial region in the war on radical Islam. Al-Qaida's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has devoted many of his recent messages to the Maghreb calling for the overthrow of regimes in place and attacking French and Spanish interests there.
The main terror vehicle to attain this goal is al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM. In fact, this organization was "founded" in January 2007 when the former Algerian insurgent group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat changed its name and decided to officialize its merger with al-Qaida.
What is al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb really up to?
One of its primary goals is to federate the main terror organizations in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya in order to attain full regional reach. For the time being, AQIM is just the improved Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.
Even though AQIM was behind several suicide attacks in Morocco last spring, including the ones on April 14 against the U.S. consulate and the American language center in Casablanca, most of its attacks occurred in Algeria.
And the Dec. 11 spectacular double suicide bombings in Algiers against the United Nations and Algeria's constitutional court are the latest proof of AQIM's potential to create chaos in North Africa.
The symbolical aspect of these attacks is very important. First, Dec. 11, 1960 is a crucial date in Algeria's history of independence from France. The constitutional court happens to be located on the December 11 Boulevard.
And most importantly the "11th" factor is one of al-Qaida's hallmarks: not only for 9/11 in the United States, but also for 3/11 in Madrid and AQIM's suicide attacks on 3/11 in Casablanca, 4/11 in Algiers, 7/11 in Lakhdaria in Algeria and now 12/11.
AQIM has succeeded in creating an "11" psychosis; some in Algeria even describe the 11th as "the date of the devil."
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