BAMAKO, December 10, 2011 (AFP)
BAMAKO, December 10, 2011 (AFP)
A group claiming to be an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) said Saturday it was holding three Westerners kidnapped from a refugee camp in Algeria in October.
“This is the Jamat Tawhid Wal Jihad Fi Garbi Afriqqiya in west Africa. We claim the operation carried out on October 23 at Tindouf when two Spaniards and an Italian were kidnapped,” said the audio and written message sent to AFP’s correspondent in Bamako.
The transcript was read by telephone by a man claiming to be a spokesman for the group, which he said had broken away from AQIM without giving a reason.
Security sources in the region had recently spoken of the formation of group, which means “Unity Movement for Jihad in West Africa.” Saturday’s claim came the day after the Mauritanian news agency ANI carried pictures of five Westerners whose abduction in Mali last month in two separate incidents was claimed by AQIM.
One photo showed French nationals Serge Lazarevic and Philippe Verdon with three armed men behind them, their faces obscured by turbans.
The other showed a Dutch national, a Swede and a man with dual British-South African nationality surrounded by four armed men, their faces similarly masked.
On Thursday, AQIM had sent a statement to ANI and AFP’s Rabat office claiming the kidnappings but denying it carried out the October abductions of the three European aid workers from a refugee camp in Tindouf in western Algeria.
