Terrorists Converge in Morocco-Algeria DMZ
The dismantlement of a 27-member of an Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) terrorist cell near Amghala, about 200 Km from the Moroccan city of Laayoune, is a considerable enlargement to AQIM activities in the Sahara and regions under the control of the Algerian military and [Western sahara separatists] Polisario militiamen . The discovery of a large cashes of arms, and bomb-making material typically used to build bomb belts and car bombs is an alarming development that would alter to approach to fighting terror in the Sahara and the Sahel. Yet, the most disturbing aspect of the Moroccan security findings remains the location of the AQIM base in the no-man’s land located between the Moroccan borders and a swap of land where the Algerian supported Polisario Militia and the Algerian military patrol on a regular basis.
The news of the arrest of the Amghala cell on the buffer zone in the Western Sahara comes at a time when evidence of AQIM infiltration of the [Western sahara separatists] Polisario units has been mounting. The existence of a terror cell in Amghala signals a worsening of the security situations in the buffer zone where the Polisario is active. The latest arrests of former Polisario fighters by the security forces of Mali and Mauritania in their anti-QMI sweeps and the set up of a terror cell in the buffer zone are evidence of a larger involvement of some active Polisario militiamen in illicit activities to support AQIM
The use of the Western Sahara’s no-man’s land by AQIM is a bold move by the terrorist group and indicative of the limited success of the fragmented and weak attempts by the Algerian military and the Polisario militia to monitor the Sahara. AQIM continues to recruit among the seasoned Polisario fighters and to keep its elements moving freely around the vast Sahara and the Sahel, as Algeria’s focus on offsetting Morocco’s efforts to find a final and durable solution to the conflict of the Western Sahara.
The facts that members of the AQIM cell were carrying detailed maps of the Moroccan-Algerian borders is a shift in AQIM methods as it tries to set up shop on an area that escape effective control of Moroccan and Algeria due to sensitivities related to the Western Sahara dispute.
The Amghala arrests will put further pressure on the European Union and the United States to compel the Moroccan and Algerian governments to resolve their difference and find a solution to the Western Sahara conflict that would pacify the region, and absorb the Polisario fighters.
The possibility of establishing an AQIM “mini-Kandahar” on the Moroccan-Algerian the buffer zone is a nightmare for security experts in the West. As it becomes evident that the eradication of a major financial and recruiting source for AQIM activities must start with the resolution of the Western Sahara, some Moroccan experts wonder if the European Union and the United States would ever held the Algerian military responsible for their behind the scenes interferences and disruptions of the United Nations efforts to adopt a middle of the ground solution to the Western Sahara. AQIM’s advancement into a region like Amghala and the international link of some of the suspects arrested by the Moroccan police are a show of the organization’s strength and a warning message to world.
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