GSPC (now "Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb") Claims "Battle of Shaykh Abul Baraa Ahmad"

By Evan Kohlmann

Yesterday, the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)--now known as "Al-Qaida's Committee in the Islamic Maghreb"--claimed responsibility for a series of six car bomb attacks targeting "apostate police stations" in Tizi Ouazu and Boumerdas, "destroying 5 fortresses for the apostates, in addition to killing and wounding more than 140 of them." The statement detailed the various attacks and targets, and boasted, "their casualties are eyewitnesses to the cruel blows dealt by the soldiers of Islam. We inform the thieves and the French who follow the Christians and the Jews that the young Muslim men of the Maghreb are determined to liberate their homeland from every crusader, apostate, and co-conspirator." Abul Baraa Ahmad (a.k.a. Ahmad Zarabib) was reported killed by Algerian security forces on January 17, 2006 in the mountains of the Bejaia province east of the capital Algiers. According to the Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (now known as “Al-Qaida’s Committee in the Islamic Maghreb”), Abul Baraa held rank as "the Chief of the Shariah Council and the Judiciary Council [of the GSPC] for many years and he is considered to be one of the co-founders of the GSPC."

Click to view English translation of statement c/o Globalterroralert.com

See also: (CTBLOG, Jan. 26) - "GSPC in Algeria Announces New Name: "Al-Qaida in the Land of the Islamic Maghrib"

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