Operation results in more than a score of Islamists killed
ALGIERS – The Algerian Army has launched an ongoing operation against local insurgents, reportedly already killing 25 members of Jund Al-Khalifa, an Islamist group linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). Fighting was centered on Ferkioua in the Bouria area, 60 miles east of the capital Algiers.
“Twenty-two armed Islamists were killed [during] the first day of a vast operation in the mountainous Ferkioua area of Bouira province,” the Ministry of Defense said. Three additional fighters were killed on the second day of operations.
The mission was launched as the result of specific intelligence which reported that a high level meeting was to take place, an Algerian officer, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told The Media Line. Dozens of Islamists were believed to be gathering for an important meeting in the mountainous region, the officer said.
The bodies of the dead fighters have not yet been identified but local media is reporting that their affiliation with Jund Al-Khalifa, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, one of the more significant armed groups operating in the area. The defense ministry has not released any information concerning the allegiance of those slain.
Jund Al-Khalifa split from Al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM] in September, accusing the group of “deviating from the true path” of Jihad. Expressing their new loyalty, the group’s leader said in a statement directed to ISIS that, “You have, in the Islamic Maghreb, men – if you order them, they will obey you.”
With its center of gravity in the mountains of Kabylie, Jund Al-Khalifa has carried out dozens of attacks on military patrols and checkpoints. In April 2014, the group was responsible for an attack on a military convoy which killed more than ten soldiers.
In September, Jund Al-Khalifa kidnapped and beheaded a French hiker, 55-year old Hervé Gourdel: an act likely intended to demonstrate its commitment to the new ideologues.
Following Gourdel’s abduction, the group demanded that the French government halt all military operations in support of US-led strikes against ISIS in Iraq. Three days later, the group claimed that it had killed the hostage, a statement that was verified shortly after with the release of video footage showing Gourdel’s execution. The film was titled, “A message with blood to the French government.”
In December, Abdelmalek Gouri, nom-d- guerre of Khaled Abu Suleiman, leader of Jund Al-Khalif, was killed by the Algerian army.
“For Algeria its years of bloodshed are away behind it,” Ahmed Kateb, a researcher who closely follows the progression of terrorist groups in North Africa explained. “Algeria is far away from the Middle East and its geopolitical contradictions,” the professor said, going on to say that he did not think that the existence of Jund Al-Khalifa would affect the country or its governance.
Algeria suffered a bloody civil war during the 1990s which was responsible for the deaths of as many as 150,000 people.
Since the start of the year, Algerian security forces have killed 59 terrorists.