Algeria: May 11, 2004

Archives

Former members of the GSPC, the last remaining Islamic rebel group in Algeria, report that last year, the founder and leader of the group, Hassan Hattab, was tried for "heresy and treason" by his key subordinates, and then shot to death. Hattab was killed because he wanted to negotiate an end of the violence with the government. One of the men who killed him, Amari Saifi, took a group of GSPC men to southern Algeria, where they kidnapped 32 European tourists, extracted six million dollars in ransom from the German government, and were recently caught in Chad. The GSPC is itself a splinter group of the GIA, which has made peace with the government in 1998. The GSPC split off in 1998 to protest the GIA decision to stop the rebellion. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close