Al-Qaida Focuses Attention on Soft Targets in West Africa

The attack on an Ivory Coast beach resort by an al-Qaida affiliate is the latest sign it is shifting its focus to soft targets associated with foreigners in an effort to destabilize economies and gain the group credibility among jihadis in its rivalry with the so-called Islamic State.
Al-Qaida Focuses Attention on Soft Targets in West Africa
An Ivorian soldier holds a Rocket-propelled grenade while manning a position in a street near the the Etoile du Sud hotel in Grand Bassam on March 14, 2016 a day after heavily armed gunmen opened fire at a hotel in the Ivory Coast beach resort. Gunmen killed 16 people at an Ivory Coast resort on March 13 leaving bodies strewn on the beach, in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaida affiliate as fears grow of a mounting jihadist threat in west Africa. Armed with grenades and assault riffles, the attackers stormed three hotels in the sleepy resort of Grand-Bassam, popular with expats, around 25 miles east of the commercial hub Abidjan. (Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)
The Associated Press
3/14/2016
Updated:
3/14/2016

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—The attack on an Ivory Coast beach resort by an al-Qaida affiliate is the latest sign it is shifting its focus to soft targets associated with foreigners in an effort to destabilize economies and gain the group credibility among jihadis in its rivalry with the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).

The three gunmen who burst into the Grand-Bassam beach resort and killed 18 people were part of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a group that grew out of the Algerian civil war in the 1990s and used to restrict itself to operations deep in the desert, hundreds of miles away.

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The shift comes as AQIM is under unprecedented pressure from the French-led Operation Barkhane, a wide ranging campaign in the Sahara that has killed a number of jihadi commanders.

According to Andrew Lebovich, an expert on the group, one of its commanders said in a recent interview that all political and security partners of France and the West were now considered valid targets.

The violence at the hotels also comes as one of the al-Qaida’s most feared commanders, Moktar Belmoktar, the architect of a 2013 attack on an Algerian gas plant, has rejoined the group with his followers and apparently expanded its capabilities dramatically.

“It is a way of showing that they can and will strike far away from the areas that had previously been regarded as security threats, while still maintaining operations in northern Mali and central Mali in particular,” Lebovich said.

The merger of al-Qaida splinters in this region also comes as the group is under increasing pressure from the dramatic success of ISIS, which has carried out high-profile attacks in Libya and Tunisia and is in danger of peeling away al-Qaida followers.

“They need publicity to counter the rise of the Islamic State and prove they are still here and capable of mounting spectacular operations,” said Djallil Lounnas, an expert on AQIM at Morocco’s AlAkhawayn University. “Moving south means they can strike anywhere and hit much softer and easier targets.”

While there are fears that the group will set its sights next on close Western allies Ghana and Senegal, the attacks have put the whole region on the alert.

In contrast to the long, drawn-out standoffs in the Mali and Burkina Faso attacks, Ivorian forces subdued the attackers in a matter of hours, suggesting that West Africa may be a more difficult target for al-Qaida.