Islamists vow to pursue jihad

2006-09-14 22:06

Dubai - A radical Algerian Islamist group known as the GSPC pledged its allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and vowed to pursue jihad in Algeria, according to a statement posted on the internet on Thursday.

"We pledge allegiance to sheikh Osama bin Laden... We will pursue our jihad in Algeria. Our soldiers are at his call so that he may strike who and where he likes," said the statement signed by Abu Mossaab Abdelwadud, the emir of the group.

Bin Laden's right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed in a video message this week that the group had joined al-Qaeda and warned it would be a "thorn in the throat" of the West.

Rejects Algerian president

"Osama bin Laden has told me to announce to Muslims that the GSPC (the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) has joined al-Qaeda," said Zawahiri, according to extracts of the video issued this week to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"We pray to God that they will be a thorn in the side of the American and French crusaders and their allies," he said.

The GSPC, created in 1998 by dissidents from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), rejects Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's policy of reconciliation.

It is regarded as the only radical Islamist movement left in the country capable of causing serious trouble.

- SAPA