Al-Qaeda affiliate in North Africa said to have sights on other Western targets

[UnrepentantLiberal]

Source: The Washington Post

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 was emboldened by the Jan. 16 raid and subsequent battle with Algerian security services that killed dozens of hostages and militants.

A senior U.S. intelligence official said that new streams of information have surfaced in the weeks since the assault 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.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/al-qaeda-affiliate-sets-sights-on-additional-attacks-in-north-africa-intelligence-officials-say/2013/01/31/406c8638-6bd1-11e2-bd36-c0fe61a205f6_story.html

[reteachinwi]

1. Blow back? Something more sinister?

The Economist - the voice of the City of London - is even promoting "Afrighanistan". There are nuances, of course. NATO had its ass kicked in Afghanistan by all sorts of Pashtun factions bundled up as "Taliban". But NATO "won" in Libya. With a certainly foreseen spin-off; the Islamist brigade which attacked the In Amenas gas field complex in the Algerian desert was using NATO-facilitated Kalashnikov AK-104s, F5 rockets, 60 mm gun-mortars and, in a nifty NATOGCC fashion touch, the "chocolate chip" camouflage Qatar handed out to the NATO rebels in Libya (yellow flak jackets with brown patches). What next, the cover of Uomo Vogue?
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/OA26Ak02.html

[Amonester]

2. I guess the "drone makers" will make a killing there too

sooner or later....