Algiers moves to break up Al Qaeda-led jihadist alliance in North Mali

Monday, Nov. 5, the defense and military chiefs of Algeria, Mauritania will confer with fellow-members of the Economic Community of West African States-ECOWAS on military action in North Mali.
Ahead of the meeting, the Algerian government launched an urgent bid to persuade Tuareg tribal Islamists of the Ansar al-Din Movement and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa to sever their operational ties with Al Qaeda of the Maghreb-AQIM in North Mali and the Sahel and Sahara Deserts.
DEBKAfile: Algiers has a dual motive for damping down Islamist terrorism in North Mali without delay: to head off the deployment of a mixed West-African peacekeeping force along the 1,390-kilometer Algerian-Mali border because it would include a French military presence in one of Africa’s richest centers of natural resources.