Michel Chossudovsky: Al Qawda in the Islamic Maghreb

Who's Who? Who is Behind the Terrorists? Who is behind the terrorist group, which attacked the BP Statoil Sonatrach in Amenas Gas Field Complex located on the Libyan border in South Eastern Algeria? The operation was coordinated by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, leader of the Al Qaeda affiliated Islamist al Mulathameen (Masked) Brigade, or "Those who Sign with Blood." Belmokhtar's organization has been involved in the drug trade, smuggling as well as kidnapping operations of foreigners in North Africa. While his whereabouts are known, French intelligence has dubbed Belmokhtar the uncatchable. Belmokhtar took responsibility on behalf of Al Qaeda for the kidnapping of 41 Western hostages, including 7 Americans, at the BP In Amenas Gas Field Complex. Belmokhtar, however, was not directly involved in the actual attack. The field commander of the operation was Abdul Rahman al Nigen, a veteran jihadist fighter from Niger, who joined Algeria's Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in 2005. The In Amenas kidnapping operation was carried out five days after the conduct of air strikes by France, directed against Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) militants in northern Mali. French special forces and Malian troops regained control of Diabaly and Konna, two small towns North of Mopti. The town of Diabali had apparently been taken over a few days earlier, by fighters led by one of the leading AQIM commanders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid. While the terrorist attack and kidnapping directed against the In Amenas Gas plant was described as an act of revenge, it was not in any way improvised, Confirmed by analysts, the operation had in all likelihood been planned well in advance: "European and US officials say the raid was almost certainly too elaborate to have been planned in so short a time, although the French campaign could have been one trigger for fighters to launch an assault they had already prepared." According to recent reports, January 20, 2012, there are some 80 casualties, including hostages and jihadist fighters. There were several hundred workers at the gas plant, most of whom were Algerian. "Of those rescued,only 107 out of 792 workers were foreign", according to the Algerian Ministry of Interior.