By Bill Roggio - February 16, 2013 - LWJ
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| Yahya Abu Hammam, the emir of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's operations in the Sahel. Image from the ANI. |
The US added the head of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb's operations
in the Sahel region of North Africa to the list of global terrorists
yesterday.
Yahya Abu Hammam, whose real name is Jemal Oukacha, was added by the
US to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists for his "key
role in the group's ongoing terrorist activities in North Africa and
Mali,"
the US Treasury Department stated in a press release.
"Today's designation supports ongoing international efforts to
isolate AQIM, deny its members the benefits of their violent and
criminal acts, and help restore Mali's territorial integrity," Treasury
stated.
Hammam has been waging jihad in North Africa since the 1990s,
according to Magharebia.com,
which profiled the AQIM emir in October 2012. He was detained by the
Algerian government for 18 months, then released. He subsequently joined
the Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat, which eventually morphed into
AQIM in 2006.
"In 2004, he joined fighters in northern Mali and southern Algeria
where he served under the command of Khaled Abou El Abbas, who was then
emir of the Sahara,"
Magharebia.com reported. Hammam fought in
northern Mali and Mauritania, where he was involved in several attacks
against the Mauritanian military. In one such attack, in 2005 against
the Lemgheity barracks, 17 Mauritanian soldiers were killed.
Prior to being appointed the head of AQIM's operations in the Sahel,
he served as the group's emir in the northern Malian town of Timbuktu.
Under his rule, numerous Muslim shrines were destroyed and civilians
were beaten for the slightest infractions of sharia, or Islamic law.
Hammam was named the emir of the Sahel after his predecessor, Nabil
Abu Alqama, was killed in a car crash. Upon taking command, Hammam named
Abdel Mejid Abou Zeid as his deputy. Zeid leads the Taregh Ibn Ziyad
brigade, which operates throughout Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and southern
Algeria. Zeid's brigade is responsible for the beheading of the British
hostage Edwin Dyer in May 2009. Algerians, Mauritanians, Malians, and
Moroccans are known to fight with both Hammam and Zeid.
The US said that Hammam "as of late 2011 ... reportedly had
possession of multiple European hostages." The French accuse Hammam of
executing Michel Germaneau, an elderly aid worker, in July 2010. AQIM
has brought in tens of millions of dollars by kidnapping European
hostages for ransom.
Hammam is known to be close to Abdelmalek Droukdel, the emir of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
AQIM, in alliance with the Movement for the Oneness and Jihad in West
Africa (MUJAO) and Ansar Dine, seized control of northern Mali in March
2012. France ultimately intervened in Mali last month after the al
Qaeda-led jihadist alliance launched an offensive to take central and
southern Mali. The jihadists likely would have succeeded had France not
intervened, as the Malian military was in retreat.
A document written by Droukdel that was found at an AQIM command center in Timbuktu after the town fell to the French
exposed the terror group's plan to use northern Mali as a base to conduct attacks in the region and against the West.
Washington Time
Kabul Time
London Time
