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30 April 2008
State Department on Terrorism in the Middle East, North Africa
Release of Country Reports on Terrorism for 2007
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MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA OVERVIEW
“Terrorism kills civilians, journalists, actors, thinkers, and professionals; it attacks universities, marketplaces, and libraries; it blows up mosques and churches and destroys the infrastructure of State institutions. We consider terrorism an extension of the fallen dictatorship, whether it may vary in its outside form or by the gangs that carry it out. Terrorism aims at aborting the political process, and igniting sectarian dissension as a prelude to hijack Iraq back into the era of tyranny, oppression, and backwardness.”
Mr. Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq;
Statement, 62nd UN General Assembly, New York;
September 26, 2007
Iraq remained at the center of the War on Terror battling al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI) and affiliated terrorist organizations, insurgent groups fighting against Coalition Forces (CF), militias and death squads engaged in sectarian as well as intra-communal violence, and criminal organizations. The Iraqi government, in coordination with the Coalition, made significant progress in combating AQI and affiliated terrorist organizations. There was a notable reduction in the number of security incidents throughout much of Iraq, including a decrease in civilian casualties, enemy attacks, and improvised explosive devices (IED) attacks in the last quarter of the year. Terrorist organizations and insurgent groups continued their attacks on Coalition and Iraqi security forces using IEDs, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), and suicide bombers. The Iraqi government continued to emphasize national reconciliation and made progress in passing key pieces of reconciliation-related legislation. There were practical steps taken that helped to advance reconciliation at the provincial and local level. The United States continued its focused efforts to mitigate the threat posed by foreign fighters in Iraq. State sponsors of terrorism, Iran and Syria, continued to play destabilizing roles in the region.
While the number and lethality of individual terrorist attacks in Israel declined in comparison to 2006, Israel nevertheless continued to suffer from terrorist threats emanating from the West Bank and Gaza, and was particularly vulnerable to rocket and mortar attacks launched against Israeli targets from inside Gaza. While there was an overall decrease in the number of successfully perpetrated terrorist attacks in comparison to previous years, Israeli security officials maintained that the decrease was not for lack of terrorists’ efforts, but because the security services were able to keep terrorist planners and operators off balance and foil acts before they were carried out. Throughout the year, Israel's security services publicly reported several foiled attempts.
In Lebanon, a campaign of domestic political violence continued. Most notable were the June 13, September 19, and December 12 car bombing assassinations of MP Walid Eido, MP Antoine Ghanem, and General Francois Hajj, respectively. Both MPs were part of the pro-government March 14 coalition. Several political allies of the two MPs charged that the Syrian government was responsible for the assassinations, which Syria strongly denied. These acts, the latest in a series of assassinations and attempted assassinations over the last three years, seemed designed to intimidate the pro-government forces and eliminate, through the process of killing MPs, their numerical majority in parliament.
There were several high profile attacks in Algiers, including the April 11 bombing of the Prime Minister’s office and the December 11 near simultaneous bombing of the Constitutional Council and the UN headquarters in Algeria. These attacks underlined the substantial shifts in strategy made by al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) towards mass-casualty attacks employing suicide tactics and targeting Western interests. AQIM claimed responsibility for both attacks and touted them as major successes. In the latter case, AQIM inaccurately equated breaching the security in the heretofore highly protected Hydra neighborhood of Algiers with breaching the Green Zone in Baghdad.
Saudi Arabia suffered two high-profile terrorist incidents: the shooting of four French citizens and the violent murder of a high-ranking Saudi colonel. Saudi security forces managed to capture or kill most of the assailants involved in the two incidents and successive government roundups resulted in hundreds of arrests that likely disrupted terrorist cells planning to carry out attacks in the Kingdom.
A series of suicide bombing attacks shattered the relative lull in terrorist violence that had prevailed in Morocco since the 2003 Casablanca bombings. The attacks underscored that Morocco’s greatest terrorist threat stems from numerous small “grassroots” Salafi Jihadist groups. The main external terrorism threat to Morocco was AQIM and its demonstrated willingness to train inexperienced Moroccan extremists. Morocco adopted a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy that emphasized vigilant security measures, counter-radicalization policies, and strong international cooperation. In the wake of the December AQIM double bombing in Algiers, King Mohamed VI summed up Moroccan cognizance of the AQIM threat in a condolence message, stating that “Algeria’s security is linked to the security of the region.”
On July 2 in Yemen, Abdu Mohamad Sad Ahmad Reheqa drove a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED) into a group of western tourists in Marib, killing himself and ten others. Three days later, U.S.-trained Yemeni security forces killed the suspected leader of the SVBIED bombing Ahmed Basyouni Dwedar, an Egyptian wanted in Egypt. On August 8 and 13, Yemeni security forces raided two houses, arresting 17 and killing four AQ-affiliated suspects while suffering one casualty.
Most governments in the region cooperated with the United States in counterterrorist activities and undertook efforts to strengthen their capabilities to fight the War on Terror. These efforts included participation in USG-sponsored antiterrorism assistance (ATA) programs and taking steps to bolster banking and legal regimes to combat terrorist financing. Many countries continued to provide some form of assistance to Coalition efforts to bring peace and stability to Iraq and Afghanistan.
(The full text of the terrorism report is available on the State Department Web site.)
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
