• published: 19 Jan 2013
• views: 537
• author: acworldnews

Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his fellow North African Jihadists are emerging as the new strategic threat to Europe. He's known as Mr Marlboro because of his cigarette smuggling. The French intelligence service calls him "The Uncatchable". The truth is Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his fellow North African Jihadists are rapidly emerging as Europe's most potent strategic threat. Born in central Algeria in 1972 he grew obsessed with Jihadi ideology in his teens. At 19 he volunteered to fight alongside the mujahedeen in Afghanistan. He missed most of the fighting there as the Soviets withdrew as he arrived but he did encounter senior members of what was to become al Qaeda - receiving training in a Jalalabad base. Mujahedeen Belmokhtar volunteered to fight with the mujahedeen aged 19 In the early 1990s he returned to Algeria to join Islamic militant groups. He served them as a quartermaster - rapidly rose to dominate operations in the south of the country during the Algerian civil war. Described by the then head of France's Territorial Surveillance Directorate (Direction de la surveillance du territoire -- DST) as Algeria's link to al Qaeda, Belmokhtar has maintained strong links to the movement's core in Pakistan. But he has been a vital element in the expansion of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). A franchise of the Jihadi movement AQIM was seen as the poorly performing franchise during the last decade. But Belmokhtar forged links with Tuareg rebels in the south Sahara from Mali to ...