Algeria seizes militant weapons
2004-02-02 07:10
Hassane Meftahi
Algiers - Algeria's army has seized a large shipment of weapons bought by Islamic militants with money received in a ransom payment for 17 European tourists taken hostage last year, the official news agency reported.
In an operation, the army also killed an unidentified number of militants from the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, a main Islamic extremist group in Algeria, as they attempted to bring the weapons into Algeria from neighbouring Mali, the APS agency reported late on Saturday.
The capture came in an army raid outside the southern town of In Salah, about 900km south of the capital, Algiers, the report said, citing the Algerian military.
The operation was said to be continuing on Saturday. The report did not say how many militants were in the four-vehicle convoy attempting to cross the border.
"This terrorist group was transporting this stash of weapons purchased from arms traffickers of neighbouring sub-Saharan countries with money from the ransom paid by a Western country in the liberation of hostages from Mali last August," the military was quoted as saying.
The Western country was not identified. According to media reports, Algeria's military has said the German government paid US$5m for the release, but Berlin has deflected lingering rumours about a ransom.
A total of 32 European tourists - 16 Germans, 10 Austrians, four Swiss, one Dutch and a Swede - were captured by extremists starting in February 2003. Fourteen were freed in an Algerian commando raid in May. Seventeen others, who had been taken from Algeria to Mali, were freed in August. One German tourist died of heat stroke in June.
Western officials have linked the Salafist group, known by the French language acronym GSPC, to the al-Qaeda terror network.
Algeria say the kidnappers had links to the GSPC, one of two top Islamic extremist movements involved in a 12-year uprising in Algeria. The fighting erupted after the military cancelled legislative elections that Islamic parties were set to win in 1992. Some 120 000 people have died in the violence.
The arms seized in the raid included 17 heavy weapons, such as mortars and rocket-launchers, and more than 200 automatic rifles and pistols, APS reported. A "sizable" stash of munitions and 11 satellite phones were also retrieved.
- AP