Algeria Ends Hostage Standoff
Video Transcript:
Video Transcript:
Algerian security forces staged a hostage rescue attempt Jan. 17 to free foreign and Algerian workers captured by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb at an energy facility. Reports of the number of hostage casualties range from six to 35. Contrary to the Western convention that safeguarding the lives of hostages during kidnapping situations is paramount, Algeria likely planned and launched its operation to resolutely demonstrate to its citizens, to jihadists and to the rest of the world that Algiers will defend its national security regardless of the safety of foreign nationals or international opinion.
The hostage rescue operation will certainly bring some foreign public opinion controversy, but domestic popular opinion will on the other hand likely soar. This is not to say Algiers is not insensitive to foreign concerns such as protecting investment and operations in its energy sector. But for Algiers, domestic constraints trump the international concerns. Algeria must assure its national security in the face of potentially destabilizing jihadist activities, which is just one consequence of France's intervention in neighboring Mali. Algeria has faced a long-running conflict with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb that had been largely contained to mountainous regions in the northeastern part of the country. But a sizeable number of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb militants were forced to relocate to northern Mali as a result of Algerian security operations against the group over the past several years.
The military intervention in Mali is bringing significant pressure to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which now must calculate whether it will fight to defend its territorial gains in Mali or decline battle against the numerically superior French and African forces being mobilized. Should it decline, it will have to retreat to safer geography, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb does not have any automatic safe zones anywhere else in Africa to turn to. Southern Algeria and Libya are not much more stable than northern Mali, but while there might be limited room for the jihadists to maneuver in these remote areas, they cannot control significant urban locations -- indeed almost a whole country -- like they almost achieved in Mali.
Algeria reluctantly agreed to support the French in the intervention in Mali. Cooperation by Algiers has included permitting French strike aircraft overflight privileges for the purposes of flying from France to Mali and other staging locations in the Sahel region. Algiers conceded to limited cooperation on Mali, but it will not concede on its national security to Western opinion or Western security standards. Its hostage rescue operation, which will be criticized for the casualties that were borne, was ultimately successful. Not in an objective of freeing hostages, but to crush the militants and end the operation. It will help to deter future militant kidnapping operations with jihadists knowing there won’t be any negotiations or ransom payments. It will also convey to Western community that while it will cooperate on Mali, there is no negotiation on regime stability within Algeria.
