DAKAR, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Ten soldiers and 17 "attackers" were killed and 31 others wounded when suspected Tuareg rebels launched one of the bloodiest attacks in the extreme northeastern part of Mali, the Malian defense ministry has announced.
The attack by the "armed bandits" resulted in one of the heaviest casualty figures since the armed clashes broke out in the remote and isolated region several years ago, a regional army commander said Thursday, according to reports reaching here.
"On the night of May 21, the military post at Abeibara was attacked by a group of unknown gunmen. The resulting fighting led to the death of 10 soldiers while attackers lost 17 of their members," said the defense ministry in a statement.
Abeibara lies approximately 150 km north of Kidal, the capital of the neighboring region of Algeria.
"The military and security forces will continue their mission of defending the territorial integrity and security of persons and property throughout the national territory," according to the statement.
"We attacked army positions at Abeibara," a source close to the Tuareg rebels told an AFP reporter, adding that "both sides had suffered several deaths and we have abducted soldiers."
The attack, according to rebel sources, was a "mission to avenge the death of Commander Sheikh Barka," a member of the May 23 Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) and a former Tuareg rebel leader, whose body was found near Kidal on April 11.
The rebels, who include the Ibrahim Ag Bahanga-led Tuareg faction, the most active in the region, have always implicated the country's security forces in his death of the commander and vowed to avenge his death.
Commander Barka, as he is fondly known to his former comrade in arms, had agreed to abandon his movement and join the Malian army after the signing of the Algiers peace accords that formally ended the Tuareg rebellion in July 2006.
Attacks, kidnappings and armed clashes have recently increased in northern Mali, including those initiated by Ag Bahanga-led group, which had taken up arms against the government in March before signing a memorandum of cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire with Bamako in Tripoli on April 3.
However, the 33 Malian soldiers, who were kidnapped by Ag Bahanga and his men following a fierce battle in late March, are still waiting to be released owing to lack of validation by the two sides of a plan for implementing the Tripoli protocol.
In the wake of the new development and perhaps fearing that the Tuareg insurgency could spread further, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has reassured Malian authorities that Algiers is keen to resume its mediation in the search for a solution to the raging conflict.
The Algerian mediation effort was suspended in April after the Malian press accused the country "of bending too much to the whims of the rebels," according to diplomatic sources.
It is in Algeria, one of the major mediators in the conflict between Bamako and Tuareg rebels, that some of the most promising accords between the two sides were signed and Mali is actively calling on Algeria to revive the stalled talks.
Jeudi 22 Mai 2008 -- Le tribunal criminel d’Alger a, par manque de preuves légales et matérielles, innocenté un des quatre individus impliqués dans la préparation de l’attentat qui a visé, le 11 avril 2007, le palais du Gouvernement, faisant plus de trente morts et plus d’une centaine de blessés. Le mis en cause, âgé à peine de 27 ans, était poursuivi pour appartenance à groupe armé avec pour objectifs de semer la terreur et de créer un climat d’insécurité parmi la population. L’accusé a été arrêté par les éléments des services de sécurité après avoir intercepté certaines de ses communications téléphoniques portant sur les attentats qui ont secoué la capitale.
Au cours de son passage à la barre, le prévenu a nié tous les faits qui lui ont été reprochés durant l’instruction judiciaire, notamment sa relation avec les groupes armés. Dans le même chapitre, l’accusé a déclaré au président de l’audience : «Je n’ai jamais été d’accord avec les terroristes pour la simple raison que ma conviction personnelle ne me permet pas d’assassiner des êtres humains. Je n’ai jamais eu l’intention de rejoindre le maquis et je n’ai jamais quitté ma ville natale, Maghnia. Aujourd’hui je me retrouve cité dans des attentats terroristes qui ont eu lieu à Tizi Ouzou et Boumerdès.» A la question de savoir s’il avait l’intention de participer à l’attentat qui a visé le palais du Gouvernement, l’accusé a répondu par la négative.
Le procureur général a requis vingt ans de réclusion criminelle à l’encontre du mis en cause car il a estimé que ce dernier avait un lien direct avec les groupes terroristes qui activaient dans les monts de la Kabylie. Les avocats de la défense ont demandé l’acquittement pur et simple de leur client en faisant valoir le fait que le représentant du ministère public n’a présenté aucune pièce relative à l’accusation. La défense a également affirmé que son client n’a rien à voir dans les deux attentats qui ont ciblé la capitale le 11 avril 2007. A signaler enfin que les trois autres individus impliqués sous les mêmes chefs d’accusation seront jugés incessamment.
May 22, 2008 -- A serial thief who was given £3,000 to quit Britain took the money and came back the next day.
Hakim Benmakhlouf was half way through a jail term when authorities moved to deport him to his native Algeria.
No sooner had he got home, than he turned round and came back again to carry on with his lucrative life of crime here.
Benmakhlouf, 26, distracted victims by 'accidentally' spraying them with ketchup before stealing luxury goods worth thousands of pounds, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Described by police as 'highly professional', in one con, he sprayed ketchup on the back of a visitor to Madame Tussauds and while the flustered victim took off his jacket, Benmakhlouf stole his bag containing goods worth £2,500.
He had carried out numerous offences over the past ten years and was banned from Heathrow airport, the court was told.
At Victoria Station, he distracted another victim by spraying him with shaving foam and stole a bag containing £1,500.
Det Sgt Andy Swindells said: 'He is the best thief I have ever seen, the way he uses different techniques to distract his victims. Most commonly he sprayed a sauce like ketchup on their back.'
Benmakhlouf's crimes funded a luxury lifestyle. He lived in the exclusive St John's Wood district of London and wore designer clothes.
Jailing him for three years, Judge John Price told him: 'You are totally unpalatable in this society.'
Benmakhlouf, who admitted theft, will be deported to Algeria after the sentence, where he will serve eight-and-a-half years for other offences.
May 23, 2008 -- A prolific bag snatcher was paid £3,000 by the Government to leave Britain - only to return the very next day and continue his one-man crimewave, a court heard yesterday.
Hakim Benmakhlouf, 26, has a string of convictions for stealing from rich tourists at five-star hotels and airports over the last ten years. He was offered voluntary repatriation to his native Algeria in July last year while serving yet another prison term for theft and was deported after being given the free cash. But Benmakhlouf returned on the Eurostar from Paris the very next day and in October he was captured on CCTV making off with a Louis Vuitton bag at a luxury hotel in central London.
According to police, Benmakhlouf enjoyed a lavish lifestyle with a home in fashionable St John's Wood, north-west London, and a collection of expensive designer clothes. The conman - who distracted one victim by spraying ketchup on his back - was finally arrested sipping coffee at a restaurant near his home on April 9 this year. Yesterday he was jailed for three years after admitting two thefts and asking for five similar offences to be taken into consideration.
Prosecuting, Helen Thomas told London's Southwark Crown Court that Benmakhlouf was a "prolific thief". She said: "The defendant targets high-class hotels or airports. He deliberately targets tourists who are likely to be in possession of large amounts of currency and other valuable items that might include passports."
In December 1998, Benmakhlouf was sentenced to two months in a young offender's institution. The father-of-two received 15 months in March 1999, a year's probation in December 2000, 21 months in February 2001, 30 months in June 2003, 12 months in August 2003, 18 months in October 2004 and 42 months in December 2005.
Ms Thomas said: "During the course of this sentence, he was offered voluntary deportation and taken to a holding centre in Dover in mid-July 2007. He was deported to Algiers. He had been provided with some £3,000 by the Government to do so." She went on: "He then returned to the UK shortly afterwards, where he embarked on the current offending spree. He has no right to be in the UK."
In October 2007, he was caught on CCTV stealing a Louis Vuitton holdall containing cash, pens and other valuables worth £5,000 from a guest at the Churchill Intercontinental Hotel in London's Portman Square. And in December 2007, footage at the same hotel showed him taking another Louis Vuitton bag containing a wallet, cash, a digital camera and two mobiles worth £6,000 in total.
Benmakhlouf, who uses 12 different aliases and three different dates of birth, admitted being behind a string of other audacious thefts. They included a bag theft at the Madame Tussauds waxworks attraction, where he sprayed his victim with tomato sauce to cause confusion, and another on a Gatwick Express train, where he used shaving foam. Other venues for thefts included Gatwick Airport and a bookmakers in Paddington. The seven thefts that former rent boy Benmakhlouf admitted netted him a total of £16,000.
In mitigation, Benmakhlouf's barrister Lucy Corrin said he came from a troubled family background, became addicted to cocaine and began stealing from rich men who hired him for sex.
Judge John Price recommended that he be thrown out of Britain as soon as he serves his jail term. He added: "The Government even gave you £3,000 to go back to Algeria. You did go back, then you came back here. You should not be here, you are a danger to this society and you should be deported as soon as possible.'
Speaking outside court, Detective Sergeant Andy Swindells, of Scotland Yard's Hotel Crime Unit, said: "These offences Benmakhlouf admitted are the tip of the iceberg. He is the most skilful bag thief I have ever seen in action. Whenever I have encountered him, he has been dressed from head to foot in Gucci and Prada. He has made a very good living off rich tourists and London is a much safer place for them with him behind bars."
In April, it emerged that scores of foreign prisoners have vanished after being controversially freed from prison pending deportation. The convicts were released wearing tags because officials failed to complete the necessary paperwork to kick them out of Britain when they had completed their sentences. Letters informing them they are each eligible for £3,000 in "repatriation expenses" have been sent to their last known addresses.
BAGHDAD, May 22, 2008 (UPI) -- Five security guards at the Algerian embassy in Baghdad were wounded by a bombing, authorities said.
The Interior Ministry said the explosion Wednesday night occurred in the Mansour neighborhood, where many foreign embassies are located, CNN reported.
Many Arab countries have been leery of opening embassies in Iraq. Two Algerian diplomats were kidnapped and killed by insurgents in 2005, with al-Qaida claiming responsibility.
Jeudi 22 mai 2008 -- Plus de 300 officiers de la Gendarmerie nationale sont en formation aux Etats-Unis. D’une durée d’un an, ce stage est destiné à la mise en service du Réseau unifié national d’informations et de télécommunications (Runitel). Ce système auquel seront reliées l’ensemble des brigades de la Gendarmerie nationale sera généralisé en 2010 sur tout le territoire national. » C’est Kharoubi Abdelkader, le chef d’état-major de la 5e région du commandement de la Gendarmerie nationale, qui l’a déclaré en marge des portes ouvertes organisées hier à Annaba. Ce système de contrôle et de surveillance américain utilisé aux USA et que seuls les Canadiens possèdent consiste à couvrir tout le territoire national, y compris la bande frontalière, de caméras de surveillance, de radars et de relais permettant la transmission des données en temps réel aux commandements fixes et mobiles de la gendarmerie. Grâce à une micro-caméra placée sur le plastron du gendarme, le contrôle et la vérification de la personne interpellée dans un barrage de contrôle permet de l’identifier, si elle est impliquée dans une affaire, et cela en temps réel. En premier temps, Runitel concernera le nord du pays pour s’étendre au Sud en 2e phase. La gendarmerie s’est également dotée d’un système d’identification dont l’objectif est de stocker toutes les affiliations des personnes arrêtées. Une banque de données qui, aujourd’hui, compte plus de 50 000 identités de malfaiteurs.
Jeudi 22 mai 2008 -- Le chef d’Etat-major de la cinquième région de la Gendarmerie Nationale a révélé la prochaine application du réseau unifié national d’informations et de télécommunications Américain « Runitel » à Alger. Ce système sera appliqué pour la première fois à l’extérieur du sol américain. Cette expérience s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un programme spécial de développement des unités militaires et de suivi de l’information. Elle sera généralisée sur les autres groupes de wilaya de la Gendarmerie d’ici l’année 2010.
Le colonel Kherroubi Abdelkader a indiqué, en marge des portes ouvertes des groupes de wilaya de la Gendarmerie nationale de Annaba et d’El-Tarf, organisées, hier, au Palais de la Culture de Annaba, que plus de 300 officiers de la Gendarmerie Nationale ont été formés aux Etats-Unis sur ce système au cours des cinq dernières années, avec une moyenne d’une année de formation pour chaque officier. Il a ajouté que le matériel nécessaire a été importé et qu’il a coûté une grande enveloppe financière. Il a expliqué que ce réseau a été installé seulement dans quelques Etats d’Amérique, vu le prix très élevé du matériel.
Il a affirmé que les fonctions de ce système, qui peut être développé, sont la réception des informations des réseaux non officiels «les citoyens», et de transmettre les renseignements aux unités dans un temps record. Ce système assure la communication entre le commandement de la Gendarmerie et ses différentes unités. Il a affirmé l’importance du rôle du citoyen, dans ce système, dans la lutte contre la criminalité. Il facilitera également l’étude et l’analyse de tous les phénomènes afin de prendre les mesures nécessaires.
Vendredi 23 Mai 2008 -- Une maman de 38 ans, d’origine algérienne, et ses deux petits garçons, âgés de 3 ans et 9 mois, ont été tués jeudi à Marseille (sud de la France), fauchés sur un trottoir bordant une voie rapide par une moto qui venait d'être percutée par une voiture. La mère et le garçon de 3 ans ont été tués sur le coup. Le bébé de neuf mois avait été transporté, immédiatement après l'accident à l'hôpital de la ville, dans un état critique. Il a succombé à ses blessures en début de soirée de jeudi.
La moto de grosse cylindrée a été percutée par une voiture avant de faucher la femme qui marchait en tenant la main de son fils de trois ans et en poussant une poussette transportant le bébé. Le père de famille, Mohamed Mansouri, âgé de 45 ans, qui est indemne, marchait à leurs côtés. Le maire de Marseille a proposé l’aide de la municipalité à M. Mansouri. Ce dernier, natif d’Oran, a en effet exprimé via des proches son intention d’inhumer les siens en Algérie.
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