Terrorists are competing at the expense of civilians
We cannot know yet whether the terrorist attacks in Paris changed our life forever, but the atmosphere in many cities in Europe is certainly different now than before. On the evening of 13 November 2015, jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) killed at least 132 innocent people. The media has covered in detail the tragic event and the hunt for the perpetrators, but failed to emphasize the other side of the story.
In the wake of the terrible attack, two gunmen armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and explosives stormed the Radisson Blu luxury hotel in Bamako, the capital of Mali. They had taken 170 hostages and killed 20 people from seven countries before Malian troops backed by French and American forces retook the building, freed the guests and the hotel staff. At least one of the hostages said that the attackers had asked him to recite verses from Quran to prove his faith, and after he had passed, they had let him leave.
A similar fighting method was the topic of my previous post:
The responsibility of the attack is claimed by Al-Mourabitoun, an Islamist group, with the local branch of al-Qaeda, called al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Al-Mourabitoun is also affiliated with al-Qaeda, and its leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar is a well-known figure to intelligence agencies. He has even earned a nickname, “the uncatchable one”, after being reported dead multiple times in recent years, but he is apparently still alive. Furthermore, he has lost his left eye earlier which contributes to his mysterious image and another nickname, “One Eye”.
Belmokhtar was born in Algeria in 1972 and he fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1990s. He did not stray from the fold and sworn loyalty to the current chief of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well.
Mokhtar Belmokhtar has been a member of various Islamist groups, but he is now leading Al-Mourabitoun founded in August 2015. According to the organisation’s initial statement, it is committed to “expelling the Crusader enemy that occupies our land”. What “Crusader enemy” means to them will be more understandable if we read their statement published during the hostage-taking operation in Bamako. They demanded the release of imprisoned fellow terrorists and the end of the fight against their members in the north and center of Mali in exchange for a cease-fire and allowing the hostages to leave.
At first glance, it does not obvious, but the incident in Mali is also connected with France.
In 2012, Mali sank into chaos after Malian soldiers staged a coup d’état and overthrew the government, but lost control of the northern part of the country where Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants firstly fought against the Malian troops, then later, with each other. These extreme groups linked with al-Qaeda abducted girls, imposed a rigorous version of Islam, and made tens of thousands of Malians flee their homes. France, as a former colonial master, was asked by the ousted government to intervene in the affairs of Mali, thus French troops expelled the Islamists from their strongholds, besides killed some of their leaders.
Since then, France is a more hateful enemy for Islamists in Mali. During the attack on Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, extremists wildly searched for the crew of Air France who was accommodated at the hotel with other foreigners. One of the surviving security guards told The Telegraph that the killers were specifically asking them about the French staff’s whereabouts. Later, the terrorists shot dead his colleague after they had found out that the guard had purposely misled them. In the end, the crew could escape unharmed.
There was another case when Belmokhtar’s group indirectly attacked France. His militants invaded the Tigantourine gas facility in Algeria in January 2013, and they took more than 800 hostages among many foreigners. Through the attack, the extremists demanded that France withdraw his troops from Mali. After four days, the Algerian forces overrun the plant and ended the terrible operation. Eventually, 39 hostages and 29 terrorists died.
Belmokhtar prefers performing extensive actions against Western citizens, taking hostages and getting a lot of public attention than making car bombs or attacking local politicians. He usually tries to avoid killing Muslims or at least, decreasing collateral damages among Muslims. This is so important to him that he pitted his group against the Islamic State’s members because he thinks the IS kills too many fellow Muslims.
With this opinion, he is not alone within the jihadist community. Reading tweets and other social media messages from al-Qaeda’s members and supporters seems a wide gap between the core tactics and methodology of the group and the IS. Al-Qaeda and other Islamist organisations linked with al-Qaeda criticize the IS due to its way of fighting. As a matter of fact, Al-Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri released a road map titled “Guidelines for Jihad”, in order to minimize Muslim civilian casualties two years ago.
The Islamic State does not care how many Muslims die in their operations.
Just a couple of days before the Paris attacks, it launched a suicide attack in Beirut, killing 43 people, most of them are Muslims. According to a United Nations’s report, the IS was responsible for the deaths of 9347 Muslim civilians in Iraq from January to August 2014.
The recently happened bloody episodes indicate that the Islamic State is competing with branches of the al-Qaeda regarding recruitment and supremacy in the jihadist scene. The dreadful Nigerian extremist group, Boko Haram became disloyal to the al-Qaeda and simultaneously got closer to the Islamic State a couple of months ago. They even urged another African extremist group, the Al-Shabaab in Somalia to unite with the IS instead of al-Qaeda. In addition, the IS got a foot in the door in Afghanistan and Pakistan, although these territories traditionally belong to the Taliban.
Considering acts of the two vying extremist groups, the peace-loving civilians cannot wait for any good. In the light of the background history of the Mali attack, one of the aims of Belmokhtar’s action was to send a message to the Islamic State. He wanted to show off his power to not only the Western world, including France, but also for the IS. And the most terrifying plot we would like to avoid that brutal and cruel terrorists are raising the bar for each other in relating to killing more innocent civilians and carrying out terrorist attacks all over the world.
If you liked the post, please recommend it. This would help others to find it. Thank you!
