AQIM emerged in early 2007, when the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat aligned itself with Osama Bin Laden’s international terrorist network.
The group launched a terrorist campaign immediately after announcing its new allegiance, which al-Qaeda’s then-deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri described as “a source of chagrin, frustration and sadness” for Algeria’s authorities.
Apart from overthrowing governments deemed apostate and installing fundamentalist regimes, AQIM’s agenda also includes ridding North Africa of toxic Western influence. The political goals of the group are the primary driving force behind their actions, says Jean Pierre Darnis, Deputy Director of the Security and Defense Program at Institute of International Affairs in Rome, Italy.
“This is a calculation made by terrorists when they attacked Algeria because Sahel area, the desert area is very difficult to control for everybody, so they can hide and seek between Algeria, Niger and Mali. And then they attacked Algeria because they want to impress and they want people to believe that the Algerian power is with the French, the US and whatever the reality and that they are the bad guys to be cancelled,” Jean Pierre Darnis said.
AQIM’s tactics include guerilla-style raids, assassinations, and suicide bombings of government, military and civilian targets. The most high-profile assassination attempt was carried out by a suicide bomber who attacked the motorcade of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in September 2007, killing 20 people. But AQIM broadened its regional aspirations in 2012, when Algeria’s neighbor Mali faced an unprecedented political crisis triggered by a state coup and ensuing rebellion. The group’s involvement in Mali will have major repercussions not only for Algeria, but for the whole region, says Lahcen Achy of the Center for Economics and Finance, IMF - Middle East.
“I think that the Islamists targeted Mali because this is a country in a fragile state, and if they succeeded in achieving the objective of having a country where they can apply Sharia and where they can have a base like what we have seen before in Afghanistan, this will of course be very nasty for the whole region,” Lahcen Achy said.
Though AQIM has not attacked Europe or the United States, the group declared Spain and France its foremost “far enemies”. France, in particular, remains a heavyweight in the region and provides political and military support to local regimes that the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb opposes.
CORRECTION: the original version of this article incorrectly stated that Lahcen Achy was a Carnegie Middle East Center scholar
