New intelligence on al-Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa indicates that the militant group is seeking to carry out attacks on other Western targets in the region after its deadly assault on a natural gas complex in Algeria, senior U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday.
The push to mount follow-on strikes is seen as evidence that al-Qaeda’s offshoot in North Africa was emboldened by the Jan. 16 raid and subsequent battle with Algerian security services that killed dozens of hostages and militants.
Graphic
A look at the events leading up to the intervention in Mali.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said that new streams of information have surfaced in the weeks since the assault on the gas complex, and that “what we have seen is intelligence suggesting a desire to carry out more attacks.”
The official and others stressed that U.S. spy agencies have not seen evidence that a specific plot has been set in motion, instead describing the al-Qaeda planning as broad and “aspirational.” The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide an overview of the emerging intelligence on al-Qaeda-inspired organizations in North Africa.
The recent intelligence has raised concern among American counterterrorism officials over the danger posed by a roiling mix of militant groups in North Africa, particularly a group known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) — an affiliate previously considered one of the terrorist network’s weakest nodes.
The assessments by U.S. intelligence officials were the most detailed to date on the attack on the petroleum complex in Algeria, a facility operated in part by BP. Three American workers were among those taken hostage and subsequently killed there.
Analysts at the CIA and other agencies are piecing together information on the attack, which took place in a remote stretch of Algeria near the border with Libya. U.S. officials said they are concerned by reports that one or more Canadian nationals took part in the raid but declined to say whether the United States has gathered intelligence confirming the involvement of operatives from North America.
Officials also acknowledged that their understanding of the attack, as well as the composition of militant networks in the region, has been impaired by a lack of U.S. intelligence assets in North Africa, and limited cooperation from other governments including Algeria.
“We simply do not have the resources, the footprint, the capabilities we have in other theaters,” the senior U.S. intelligence official said, alluding to countries including Pakistan and Yemen, where the CIA has stationed dozens of case officers on the ground and has carried out hundreds of airstrikes with drones.
The U.S. campaign against al-Qaeda in those strongholds has driven militants, including dozens of Western Europeans, to new battlefronts including Syria and North Africa. As a result, AQIM has drawn recruits from a dozen or more countries, including Mali, Mauritania, Libya, Sudan and Egypt.
The CIA has sought to expand its presence in North and Western Africa, including in Mali, where AQIM fighters took control over major cities in the nation’s northern territory before being driven back by French forces over the past week.
The Pentagon is also making plans to install a new drone base in Niger, which borders Algeria and Mali and could serve as a platform for surveillance flights to assist the French effort to oust AQIM.
The attack on the gas compound appears to have been planned weeks in advance, officials said, and aimed at least initially at taking hostages with a plan to seek ransom payments or make other demands.
The operation was largely orchestrated by a veteran al-Qaeda acolyte, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who leads a group that recently splintered off from AQIM. A second U.S. intelligence official described him as “very focused on attacking Western interests,” although he has mainly been associated with smuggling and kidnapping operations.
The push to mount follow-on strikes is seen as evidence that al-Qaeda’s offshoot in North Africa was emboldened by the Jan. 16 raid and subsequent battle with Algerian security services that killed dozens of hostages and militants.
Graphic
A look at the events leading up to the intervention in Mali.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said that new streams of information have surfaced in the weeks since the assault on the gas complex, and that “what we have seen is intelligence suggesting a desire to carry out more attacks.”
The official and others stressed that U.S. spy agencies have not seen evidence that a specific plot has been set in motion, instead describing the al-Qaeda planning as broad and “aspirational.” The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide an overview of the emerging intelligence on al-Qaeda-inspired organizations in North Africa.
The recent intelligence has raised concern among American counterterrorism officials over the danger posed by a roiling mix of militant groups in North Africa, particularly a group known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) — an affiliate previously considered one of the terrorist network’s weakest nodes.
The assessments by U.S. intelligence officials were the most detailed to date on the attack on the petroleum complex in Algeria, a facility operated in part by BP. Three American workers were among those taken hostage and subsequently killed there.
Analysts at the CIA and other agencies are piecing together information on the attack, which took place in a remote stretch of Algeria near the border with Libya. U.S. officials said they are concerned by reports that one or more Canadian nationals took part in the raid but declined to say whether the United States has gathered intelligence confirming the involvement of operatives from North America.
Officials also acknowledged that their understanding of the attack, as well as the composition of militant networks in the region, has been impaired by a lack of U.S. intelligence assets in North Africa, and limited cooperation from other governments including Algeria.
“We simply do not have the resources, the footprint, the capabilities we have in other theaters,” the senior U.S. intelligence official said, alluding to countries including Pakistan and Yemen, where the CIA has stationed dozens of case officers on the ground and has carried out hundreds of airstrikes with drones.
The U.S. campaign against al-Qaeda in those strongholds has driven militants, including dozens of Western Europeans, to new battlefronts including Syria and North Africa. As a result, AQIM has drawn recruits from a dozen or more countries, including Mali, Mauritania, Libya, Sudan and Egypt.
The CIA has sought to expand its presence in North and Western Africa, including in Mali, where AQIM fighters took control over major cities in the nation’s northern territory before being driven back by French forces over the past week.
The Pentagon is also making plans to install a new drone base in Niger, which borders Algeria and Mali and could serve as a platform for surveillance flights to assist the French effort to oust AQIM.
The attack on the gas compound appears to have been planned weeks in advance, officials said, and aimed at least initially at taking hostages with a plan to seek ransom payments or make other demands.
The operation was largely orchestrated by a veteran al-Qaeda acolyte, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who leads a group that recently splintered off from AQIM. A second U.S. intelligence official described him as “very focused on attacking Western interests,” although he has mainly been associated with smuggling and kidnapping operations.