Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Algeria News Update: 500 Military Trucks Supplied to Libya; Journalist Killed

Algeria: 500 Military Trucks Supplied To Libya

05/09/11

Washington / Morocco Board News--- Al Jazeera TV reported that the Libyan embassy in Algiers has purchased 500 military grade vehicles from several dealers and shipped them to the pro-Gaddafi loyalist forces.

Such large purchase of military grade vehicles by an embassy, of a neighboring country at war, can not go forward unless it has a tacit support from Algeria's government.

The Algerian opposition had accused Algeria's government of supporting Gaddafi by, among others, facilitating the supply of military hardware to the Gaddafi regime through the Algerian-Libyan border. "We have information about the entry to Libya of military hardware through the Algerian border" announced an official of the Libyan Rebels Group CNT.

The Libyan ambassador in Algiers is one of the few to remain loyal to the Gaddafi regime .

The Algerian newspaper (Ashorouk) said that a central committee member of the FLN, Algeria's ruling party, attended a pro-Gaddafi conference in Tripoli; where he made a speech attacking the rebels's National Transitional Council and accusing it of being "a pawn of the West."

Abdelaziz Belkhadem, Algeria's President representative, has harshly criticized the Libyan rebel group, the National Transitional Council, for their accusations that Algeria is helping to send mercenaries to Colonel Gaddafi.

www.tehrantimes.com

Algerians reject president's reforms

Algerian protesters have rejected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's proposed reforms, saying they seek major changes to the country's Constitution.

“The constitution is outdated and must be amended to meet public demand and avoid a possible Libyan scenario,” vice president of Movement of Society for Peace, Abderrazak Mokri, told Press TV in the capital, Algiers.

The opposition says the country's current Constitution gives too much power to the president, while banning religion-based parties.

Boutelfika says all political parties, whether or not represented in the parliament will play a role in Algeria's future under his proposed reforms.

The opposition, however, says Bouteflika's proposal will not bring about any real change.

Demonstrations are banned in the North African country, but youths have rallied several times in recent months, demanding political change.

Algerian police equipped with riot shields, helmets, bullet-proof vests and batons confronts the protesters and disperses any such gatherings.

(Source: Press TV)


Journalist shot dead in Algerian militant stronghold

By News Wires
07/05/2011 - 12:07

A journalist for several French-language newspapers was shot dead in a region where the north African branch of al Qaeda is known to be active, but there has been no confirmation that militants linked to it were responsible.

REUTERS - A journalist was shot dead on Friday in an area of Algeria where insurgents linked to al Qaeda are active, a security official said.

There was no confirmation the attack was carried out by al Qaeda-affiliated militants, but the killing revived memories of the 1990s when journalists were routinely targeted by Islamist insurgents fighting government security forces.

The journalist, Ahmed Nezar, was shot dead on Friday afternoon in his hometown of Baghlia, about 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital, the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

Nezar was a local freelance correspondent for several French-language newspapers in Algeria, an energy exporter which won its independence from France in 1962.

“The journalist lived in this dangerous area where several local officials have been killed in the past few years,” the security official said.

Algeria is emerging from a conflict with Islamist militants which, at its height in the 1990s, killed an estimated 200,000 people. Security crackdowns and offers of amnesties to insurgents have helped to reduce the violence dramatically.

However, there has been an upsurge in attacks in the past few weeks. Last month, Islamist militants killed 13 soldiers in the mountainous Kabylie region east of Algiers, in their deadliest attack for months.

Six soldiers were killed the following day in the same region, and two gendarmes—or paramilitary police—were killed nearby late last month, security officials and local witnesses said.

Baghlia, which is also in the Kabylie region, has for years been a focus of attention for al Qaeda’s north African branch, which is known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Local people and security officials say AQIM insurgents use threats of violence to extort money from farmers in and around Baghlia to help finance their operations.
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Source URL: http://www.france24.com/en/2010507-algeria-journalist-shot-dead-in-algerian-militant-stronghold

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