Algerians and Terrorism

[Annie]

http://www.strategypage.com//fyeo/qndguide/default.asp?target=ALGERIA.HTM

June 11, 2005: Algeria has been the center of Islamic radicalism in Africa for over a decade. Even more so than Egypt, where many of the intellectual founders of Islamic radicalism come from. Algeria is where most of the foot soldiers of the movement came from. Egypt defeated its Islamic radicals a decade ago, while Algeria has crushed them only in the last year. Over the last few years, many of the Algerian Islamic radicals have fled to Europe, and other Islamic countries. About a quarter of the 400 foreign terrorists captured in Iraq are from Africa, and a similar percentage of the foreign terrorists killed in Iraq are believed to be from Africa (mainly Egypt, Morocco and Algeria.) But the most dangerous Islamic terrorists are those who fled south, to set up camps in the thinly populated Sahel (the semi-desert area south of the Sahara desert). Al Qaeda, using its network of Islamic "charities" provides some of the financing for these new terrorist bases, as well as the money to send African Islamic radicals to Iraq.