Al Qaeda’s Sinister Creep into North Africa

On Monday the Iraqi Army launched a large-scale offensive in Diyala north of Baghdad to wipe out Al Qaeda’s last remaining hideouts in the country. Since the tide of the war turned last winter, thousands of Al Qaeda jihadists have fled Iraq.

Some returned home and resumed normal life. Others, looking for new places to pursue their holy war against “Zionists and Crusaders”, ended up in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Thailand and helped to reignite the fires of jihad.

However, North Africa appears to have attracted the largest number of returnees. According to the buzz in jihadist circles, confirmed by officials and analysts, a new arc of terror is taking shape in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania - the five countries of the so-called Arab Maghreb in North Africa. ...