Militants who seized an Algerian gas plant before they were killed in a bloodbath received logistical aid from Islamists in Libya, a well-informed source told AFP Tuesday
Militants who seized an Algerian gas plant before they were killed in a
bloodbath received logistical aid from Islamists in Libya, a well-informed
source told AFP Tuesday
"Logistical support was provided from Libya," said the source close
to hardline Islamist groups in Libya, which has seen a rise in extremism since
the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.
The source did not specify the exact nature of such aid but acknowledged that
Libyan Islamists were responsible for establishing contacts between the captors
and the media.
International media groups, including AFP, were able to get from Islamist
circles based in eastern
Libya
telephone numbers of the kidnappers as they last Wednesday overran the In
Amenas gas plant in the deep Algerian desert.
Thirty-seven foreigners were killed in the four-day siege of the remote desert
gas plant, some of them executed with a bullet to the head, Algerian premier
Abdelmalek Sellal said Monday.
He said that a total of 29 militants were also killed and three captured in the
siege, which ended in a final showdown on Saturday when Algerian special forces
stormed the sprawling gas complex.
Algeria
has
said its special forces managed to free 685 Algerian and 107 foreign hostages,
most of them Thursday, during their first rescue operation.
During the deadly standoff, several media outlets had talked of a "Libyan
connection" to the siege.
Algerian website TSA cited a security source saying the kidnappers had entered
Algeria
from
Libya
in
official Libyan vehicles, while other outlets argued that the weapons the
kidnappers used came from
Libya
.
When questioned by AFP, Libyan officials simply reiterated the words of their
prime minister, Ali Zeidan, who denied that the kidnappers entered
Algeria
from
Libya
,
saying the Libyan territory was not being used for launching operations that
threaten security of neighbouring countries.
Algerian premier Sellal on Monday that the militants had crossed from northern
Mali
.
The Libyan source said that Libyan Islamists had no organisational link with
the group, "Signatories in Blood" which led the four-day siege of the
gas complex.
The group is led by one-eyed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the founders of
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM ). Belmokhtar left Al-Qaeda in October to
create his own group.
Jaber al-Abidi, an analyst, has no doubt Libyans were involved.
"It is clear that there is a link between Libyan extremist groups and
those who led the In Amenas operation," said Jaber al-Obeidi, an analyst
and political activist.
"Libyan extremists are present in northern
Mali
and
helped carry weapons from
Libya
after
the fall of the regime" of Gadhafi, he added.
The "Signatories in Blood" group had said that its attack on the gas
complex was in retaliation for French intervention in northern
Mali
.
Algeria
's
Sellal dismissed this, saying the assault had been planned for nearly two
months, long before
France
intervened in northern
Mali
.
Since the fall of Gadhafi's regime in October 2011, Libyan Islamists have
gained influence and inherited a large military arsenal from the conflict that
ousted and killed him.
Their ability to strike was illustrated by the murderous assault launched
September 11 on the
U.S.
consulate in
Libya
's
eastern city of
Benghazi
that
killed the American ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
According to the Libyan source, the Islamists who attacked the gas facility
entered
Mali
"transiting through
Niger
and
Libya
from
the
Salvador
triangle," a barren stretch of desert that borders
Libya
,
Algeria
and
Niger
.
Libya
has
long struggled to monitor its 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) land border.
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