Courtesy of The Counterterrorism Blog:

In fact, AFP just reported that Sheikh Ahmed Abu Al Baraa was killed on January 17 during a fight between Islamists and the Algerian Army. It is an important victory against the jihadists because Al Baraa was quite influential in bringing in new recruits to the Algerian terrorist group.

Also GSPC is getting a lot of traction recently and can be considered as one of the most dangerous terror groups out there. Even though, France is their number one enemy, GSPC is helping Zarqawi in Iraq with fresh blood. Indeed, from April 2003 to December 2005, 163 Algerian GSPC members were arrested at the Syrian-Iraqi border: this is the highest number of citizens right after Jordanian and Saudi nationals. These “fighters” are usually handed over to Algerian authorities.

Finally, in the past three years about fifty GSPC Islamists have been sent back to Algeria from mostly Western Europe and the US. For instance, just recently Canada handed over Samir Ait Mohamed to Algerian authorities, to the utter dismay of Washington. Indeed, Mohamed who had been jailed for four and half years in Canada was wanted in the US because of its implication in the Ressam network that plotted the Millenium attack.

Even though, Algeria has been a good ally in the war on terror, especially in terms of intelligence, a recent rapprochement to Iran is quite worrying.