TERRORIST ORGANISATION

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

NEWSLETTER 2012/12

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The Newsletter is only for government use and not intended for commercial use

TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

1. OSINT
1.- Azawad schools reopen under strict Sharia 2.- Al-Qaeda in northern Mali training recruits 3.- Al-Qaeda draws Maghreb militants to Mali

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The Newsletter is only for government use and not intended for commercial use

TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

Azawad schools reopen under strict Sharia Title Issued on Issued in Description of the issuing source Language Comments 16/05/2012 http://www.magharebia.com On-line Newspaper English

After seizing control of Timbuktu and Gao last month, extremists re-opened schools and imposed new rules on students and teachers. By Jemal Oumar for Magharebia in Nouakchott 16/05/12 Armed groups in northern Mali are forcing their Salafist version of Sharia upon their captive populations. Their latest target: school children. Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and their Ansar al-Din allies re-opened schools in Timbuktu and Gao on May 7th, but students returned to something unknown before the March coup. "Islamists imposed a system separating boys from girls at classes," Journal Du Mali reported. 'Students were also separated according to shifts, with boys now studying in the morning and girls studying in the evening". The Islamists also decreed that schools could no longer teach philosophy and biology. "In addition to cancelling some subjects and separating girls from boys, the Islamists forced young girls at schools to wear Islamic clothing that requires them to fully cover their heads and bodies," Abou Bacrin Ciss, an education representative in Timbuktu, told Magharebia. In response, some families have pulled their children out of school, some students have refused to be tested under these conditions, while others, however, have "accepted the status quo because they can't afford the alternatives," Bacrin Ciss said. "This is not acceptable," Timbuktu mayor Hall Ousman said as he condemned the radical groups' approach to education. "It has caused a shock for residents, especially students' parents," he said. In Gao, the situation is not much different from Timbuktu. Even though boys and girls are allowed to sit in the same class, the boys are at the front of class and the girls are in the back, Malian daily L'Express reported. Anara Miga, a teacher in Gao, described her work since schools re-opened there in late April. "As teachers, we're searched on a daily basis by Ansar al-Din," she said. "They fear we may teach some subjects that they consider 'prohibited' and 'contrary to God's Sharia'," she added. Meanwhile, Timbuktu parent Abdallah Hamanu complained that what is going on was the same as "medieval times". The similarities manifest themselves "in terms of restricting thought, preventing the teaching of some subjects under the pretext that

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TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM
they promote infidelity, and establishing inquisition courts", he said. "It's a crime against children," Hamanu added.

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

4
The Newsletter is only for government use and not intended for commercial use

TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM
Al-Qaeda in northern Mali training recruits

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

Title Issued on Issued in Description of the issuing source Language Comments

15/05/2012 http://www.magharebia.com On-line Newspaper English

By Jemal Oumar for Magharebia in Nouakchott 15/05/12 Reports indicate a new al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) plan that may be under way to turn northern Mali into a base for training terrorists. AQIM is believed to have brought terrorist elements from Pakistan to provide training to new recruits in guerrilla warfare, use of various types of weapons, arms smuggling, and in laundering money collected from ransoms. This is in addition to providing advice to group leaders on how to deal with the world's war against terror. Groups of Pakistani jihadists entered into Timbuktu in northern Mali through Algeria's southern border to take part in governing the Salafist entity growing out of Timbuktu, according to reports from Le Temps d'Algrie daily on Wednesday (May 9th) and testimonies from residents in northern Mali. Timbuktu mayor Hall Ousman confirmed the news during an exclusive telephone interview with Magharebia. "There are actually many Pakistani nationals in Timbuktu, as well as others from many other nationalities, the mayor said."I personally saw them today going around streets, neighbourhoods and markets. However, they haven't yet started actual communication and direct conversation with residents." "As to their mission, it became clear to residents several weeks ago," Ousman added. "It is represented in training the new recruits who al-Qaeda and other armed groups in town are enlisting." "The situation has become very dangerous," he concluded. "In Timbuktu, we refuse that our city be turned into a scene for the terrorist acts that foreign groups are engaged in, given that they threaten our stability and make our sons susceptible to deviation." Imam Dawood Ag Mohamad of the Belferandi Mosque in central Timbuktu also spoke of the new developments. "I've heard about the presence of elements from Pakistan in Timbuktu. I haven't personally met anyone of them, but like other city residents, I'm very resentful of the presence of these elements because we know that they haven't come here to engage in construction and building," he said. Analyst Sid Ahmed Ould Tfeil explained that "the spread of foreign nationals and elements from several identities in areas controlled by al-Qaeda is one of the priorities for the terrorist group which considers itself to be above all ethnic and national considerations." "It believes that wherever the necessary conditions and circumstances

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TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM
of jihad are available, it becomes a duty for jihadists to move to that place to provide support," he said.

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

"The condition of Timbuktu today is largely similar to that of Afghanistan and Pakistan which in the early 1990s were centres for attracting jihadists from around the world to raise al-Qaeda flag," Ould Tfeil added. "Northern Mali today is the next alternative for Afghanistan where the terrorists have suffered heavy losses before and after the killing of Bin Laden because of the role played by drones and international forces in countering terrorism there." "A few days after the fall of northern Mali, Boko Haram elements came from Nigeria," he said. "Now elements from Pakistan and Afghanistan are coming, and elements from Somalia's Shabaab al-Mujahideen may come within the next days," he predicted. "This is in addition to the Maghreb elements who are originally in the region." In his turn, journalist Zine El Abidine Ould Mohammed said: "al-Qaeda leaders in the region want to show that they were actually able to realise the most important condition for the establishment of a jihadist Islamist state which Osama Bin Laden promised in his messages which were published by the US Defence Department; the ability to declare the state after going beyond the stage of generating support for terrorism and defeating the enemy, namely the Malian government." Abu Bakr al-Sedik Ag Hami, a professor in Bamako University who hails from Timbuktu, explained al-Qaeda's recruitment of new elements by exploiting young people's need for a source of income after the disappearance of Mali's central government. Al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Din realised this, and therefore, started distributing money and goods to poor citizens to win their hearts and minds, taking advantage of National Movement for the Liberation of Azaouad (MNLA)'s lack of financial resources and the fact that it has military force only outside cities, Ag Hami said. "The world must realise this game," he added. "Therefore, it has to support MNLA so that poor residents may find an alternative for al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Din, whose pattern of government is not wanted by local population."

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The Newsletter is only for government use and not intended for commercial use

TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM
Al-Qaeda draws Maghreb militants to Mali 11/05/2012
http://www.magharebia.com On-line Newspaper English

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

Title Issued on Issued in Description of the issuing source Language Comments

Algerian and Libyan extremists who followed their AQIM leaders to Mali are presenting themselves as "Maghreb neighbours". To Timbuktu and Kidal residents, they are foreign terrorists. By Jemal Oumar for Magharebia in Nouakchott 11/05/12 Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has a new strategy to bolster its ranks in northern Mali: bringing in recruits from the Maghreb. Maghreb militants are flocking to Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao to join al-Qaeda brigades, local officials report. "Hundreds of fighters from Tunisia, Libya and the Maghreb have arrived in northern Mali to join al-Qaeda, Malian daily L'Express quoted a defence ministry official as saying on Sunday (May 6th). The Timbuktu spokesperson for Islamist group and alQaeda ally Ansar al-Din told Magharebia: "We can't confirm or deny the arrival of new recruits to al-Qaeda in the region." Sanad Ould Bouamama added, however, "It's not in our interests to expel them as long as their goal is to fight apostates and apply the Islamic Sharia we all seek." "We're different from them because we are a local group," Ould Bouamama stressed. "Al-Qaeda's presence extends from Mauritania to Niger and Libya, and they can take any of their elements to areas that are under their control." The international community is raising alarms about the wider threat al-Qaeda poses after its expansion into Mali. "We are very worried by what is happening in Mali and its impact on the region," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said this week. "We need to create the right conditions to avoid this crisis becoming a threat to global security," he added, appealing to the international community to get involved. It is more than a mere regional crisis, he said. It is a "risk to peace and security all over the world". Timbuktu mayor Hall Ousman noted that AQIM members from all over now move freely in the region. Abou Zeid (left) was recently seen in the northern Malian region of Kidal. "Al-Qaeda's elements can enter and exit anytime. This has become a usual thing for us. They can pass in front of me without being observed," he said. Ibrahim Ag Asa, a resident of Timbuktu, told Magharebia, "I saw with my own eyes non-Malian al-Qaeda armed elements. They are likely from Tunisia, Algeria and Libya." "I didn't see Moroccans, or at least I didn't hear anyone among them speaking Moroccan dialect," he added.

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TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM
In an attempt to win the hearts of the local population, foreign militants from the Maghreb have been seen distributing food to displaced people in the suburbs of Timbuktu. Mohamad Ag Ali, a livestock trader, overheard them saying: "We're your neighbours and our goal is to raise the word of Allah alongside our brothers." "Some people were extremely afraid, while others were hungry and wanted to get food, so they didn't object to what they were saying," he added. The mayor of Timbuktu also voiced concerns about how the terrorists are behaving with the local citizenry. "They stormed food stores and distributed food to residents, but this is not approved by any religion, because they are taking food by force and distributing it according to their own rules," Hall Ousman said. "The question now is: how will they continue to give food to people after the looted stores run out of food?" he wondered. He noted the rising rage against the interlopers, particularly after the destruction of the tomb of Timbuktu saint Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar on May 3rd. "They started by preventing us from practicing our habits in visiting graves on Fridays," the mayor said. "They even destroyed our holy places, making us extremely angry." For his part, Dawood Ag Mohamad, imam of the Belferandi Mosque, said he had not personally met "the new groups that are said to have entered Timbuktu" but "heard from more than one person that they came to the city to enhance the presence of alQaeda here". "This is not reassuring. It doesn't give the impression that al-Qaeda is going to leave Timbuktu anytime soon,'" the imam told Magharebia. The appearance of armed militants from the Maghreb is not restricted to Timbuktu, AFP reported on May 7th, citing a Malian security source. Other cities such as Kidal, in the northeastern tip of the country, are also facing the influx of foreign AQIM fighters. And this can only serve to further isolate an already remote and struggling region. Just last week-end, Kidal residents spotted top al-Qaeda leaders in their town. Khaled Abou El Abass (aka Mokhtar Belmokhtar, or "Laaouar"), head of the AQIM katibat that spans Algeria, Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Mali, toured the city on Friday and Saturday, Mali's Le Republican daily reported May 7th. Abdelhamid Abou Zeid (real name Mohamed Ghadir) was also spotted in Kidal. The "Tariq ibn Ziyad" brigade boss now runs AQIM operations from Adrar province up to the Niger border. Yahya Abou Al-Hammam (aka Jemal Oukacha), the second-in-command to AQIM chief Abelmalek Droukdel, was seen with his AQIM colleagues as well. Last month, Ansar al-Din installed the Algerian national and al-Qaeda emir as the governor of Timbuktu. The Timbuktu governor appointment was part of the power-sharing deal between the Islamist group and al-Qaeda. Conditions in Kidal have forced families to flee for neighbouring Algeria or Niger. Only people that can't leave, together with livestock breeders unable to find shelter for

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

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TERRORIST ORGANISATION
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM
their animals, are staying behind. Kidal citizens are facing other hardships in the name of Islamic Sharia, one of the few residents who remained in town told Magharebia.

11-20 May Organisation AQIM. 2012 OSINT about Terrorist

"The people here are under strict surveillance to make them change their social habits in clothing, and the way they greet each other and talk," Sheta Ag Haman said. "Men are forced to go to mosque regularly, and their children must now attend segregated religious schools," he said. Violators of Sharia face whippings and other punishments, he added. The dire situation in Kidal led local leaders to meet with militants from the other player in the struggle for northern Mali the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) to discuss ways to force al-Qaeda to leave their town, Touareg activist Adoum Ag al-Wali told Magharebia. Many fearful residents, however, have already done the same.

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