Al Qaeda Declares Jihad in North Africa

The leader of the Al Qaeda’s North African branch has called for a Jihad (holy war) against the region's governments, which it described as "regimes of apostasy and treason." In a 29-minute video broadcast posted on various Islamic fundamentalist websites Monday, Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud particularly singled out Algeria and Mauritania, claiming that Mauritania had become "a nest of foreign intelligence" fronted by Israel's Mossad and accusing it of recognizing Israel and exchanging ambassadors with it.  Wadoud also alleged that Algeria had become a French proxy and was preparing to allow the US to install military bases within its territory.[PE]