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ALGIERS - A leading member of al Qaeda's north Africa wing has surrendered to the Algerian authorities and revealed tensions among the group's leaders, official news agency APS reported.
Benmessaoud Abdelkader, who operated in the Sahara, gave himself up this month after disagreements with other leaders of the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, APS said.
The group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), swore allegiance to al Qaeda last year and this month vowed more attacks in the Maghreb region.
The GSPC's move to join al Qaeda was "decided unilaterally" by its chief Abdelmalek Droudkel after another prominent group member, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, contacted the al Qaeda leadership, APS quoted Benmessaoud as telling Algerian security officials.
But Belmokhtar was now considering withdrawing to Mali as he feared betrayal and "neutralisation" by the group's chief in the Sahara, Djouadi Yahia, alias Abou Amar.
"The tensions between terrorist leaders are more and more significant," the agency said.
Algerian security forces have stepped up assaults on al Qaeda hideouts after the group switched its focus to high profile bombings in towns and away from hit and run attacks on police in the countryside.
Triple suicide bombings killed 33 people in the capital Algiers in April. Since then, newspapers have reported internal divisions and defections by former GSPC members disgusted with civilian deaths, but Droukdel has denied any split.
Founded in 1998, the GSPC began as an offshoot of another armed group that was waging an armed revolt to establish an Islamic state.
The uprising began in 1992 after the army-backed authorities, fearing an Iran-style revolution, scrapped a parliamentary election that an Islamist party was set to win. Up to 200,000 people were killed in the ensuing bloodshed.
- REUTERS
