Al Qaeda in desperate plea for more terrorists in North Africa

Al Qaeda has issues a plea for more fighters to join its terrorist activities in North Africa

by The Commentator on 18 March 2013 10:56

The SITE Intelligence Group has reported that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has appealed for new recruits from North African countries in its fight against what it said was France's "Crusader" campaign in Mali.

The global jihad monitoring company stated that the appeal was posted on websites used by AQIM on Saturday 16th March and urged Islamist terrorists being pursued by their governments to join Al Qaeda fighters battling French-led forces in Mali or Algeria.

France launched a ground and air operation in Mali in January this year in an attempt to break Islamist rebels' hold on the region. French officials have stated that the terrorists pose a risk to the security of West Africa and Europe.

The call to arms however looks increasingly desperate as AQIM come under further pressure from local authorities and international intervention. The statement reads:

"The front of the Islamic Maghreb today is in direst need of the support of the sons of Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, and Mauritania, to thwart the attack of Crusader France and defeat its agents in the region, and empower the Islamic project." (Translation of the statement emailed by SITE).

AQIM qualified its call to action by stating that if Islamist youths in North Africa could have a greater impact in their own countries, they should stay to fight secularism and push for the imposition of sharia-based rule.

France's offensive has wrested northern Mali from Islamist occupation and killed scores of fighters. Other rebels have retreated into mountain caves and desert hiding places stocked with arms and supplies.

The Algerian army in January killed at least 32 Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in an assault to end a siege at a desert gas plant in which 23 hostages were killed, many of them foreigners.

Read more on: al qaeda, al qaeda in the islamic maghreb, Mali, and France