Algeria: Aid Workers Kidnapped

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Al-Qaeda-linked operatives kidnapped several European aid workers from a refugee camp in western Algeria late on 22 October 2011. The assailants — part of the regional al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) terrorist group — abducted the one Italian and two Spanish nationals in a midnight attack on the Rabuni Camp. Refugee camp workers alleged that the assailants arrived in vehicles from the direction of the Mali-Algeria border. Algerian and Mauritanian officials confirmed that the attack was carried out by the AQIM. The camp houses refugees from the contested Western Sahara region in Morocco and is run by the Algerian-based portion of the rebel Polisario Front.

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The attack on the Western Sahara refugee camp by the AQIM is a new development. The AQIM and groups like it have not in the past targeted workers at Western Sahara refugee locations and such attacks are relatively rare in the western region of Algeria. However, increasing AQIM activity in the border regions with Mali could account for this incident. There are also concerns that the AQIM action in a location associated with Western Sahara and the Polisario Front could increase tensions between Algeria and Morocco. Morocco continues to maintain that the rebel Polisario Front — which is supported by the Algerian government — is a terrorist organization, and the targeting of Westerners at a Polisario Front organization could bolster allegations that the group had knowledge of, or even involvement in, the kidnapping. Source: AFP, ASI Group, Al Jazeera, Algeria Daily

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