April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Bands of Islamist fighters, terrorist trainers and arms suppliers roaming the mountainous southern Sahara Desert are new targets in the U.S. war against al-Qaeda.

The groups, originally linked to rebels fighting the government of Algeria, operate under the umbrella of Algeria- based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, U.S. military officials say. AQIM has claimed responsibility for at least six attacks, including a failed attempt to assassinate Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, that have killed more than 100.

The war against AQIM is being led from the new headquarters of the U.S. Army's Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany, which is due to become fully operational this October with a staff of about 1,000. Africom will provide military aid and training to countries in the southern Sahara, an area known as the Sahel.

``The terror groups are constantly on the move; lots of weapons, lots of people cross these borders,'' said Lieutenant Colonel Randall Horton, a planner in Africom's Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara mission. ``We are working with our partner nations to address these security issues.''

Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are taking part in the U.S.-sponsored military programs. Africom's mission is to train their forces to roust terrorists and also to control sparsely patrolled borders for arms traffic, drug smuggling and infiltration by violent organizations.

Empty Spaces

``The Sahel, with its vast empty spaces and highly permeable borders, could serve local and international terrorists both as a base for recruitment and training and as a conduit for the movement of personnel and material, much as Afghanistan had been for al-Qaeda in the late 1990s,'' said J. Peter Pham, director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The cross-border Sahel AQIM forces travel by Toyota Land Cruisers that rely on a network of underground fuel bunkers. They possess mortars, surface-to-air missiles and equipment needed to construct roadside bombs. The membership may be as low as 150, U.S. officials in Stuttgart say. About 500 more AQIM members are based in Algeria, which, like Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, is part of the Maghreb region.

They get help from nomadic tribes known as the Tuareg, a Berber ethnic group that is in combat with the government of Mali. Drug smuggling helps nourish the Sahel AQIM, say U.S. military officials who speak on condition of anonymity; they say that cocaine from Colombia passes through Venezuela and is sent to Burkina Faso in West Africa and then transported via Algeria and Morocco to Europe.

Europe

Europe is also an AQIM target. ``We are seeing increased collaboration between al-Qaeda and North African terrorist groups,'' the Africom commander, General William E. Ward, told the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on March 13. ``Violent extremists here continue to coordinate activities and interact with networks in Europe.''

European Union leaders are increasingly alarmed over the terrorism potential along the 27-nation bloc's southern flank, just across the Mediterranean from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator, warns that sub-Saharan Africa is becoming a breeding ground for anti-Western radicalism.

Pointing to training camps in Mauritania, Mali and Niger, De Kerchove said in a Bloomberg Television interview April 16 that terrorism rooted in the Sahel region and in the Maghreb of northwestern Africa is a ``serious and growing concern for Europe.''

Attacks and Kidnappings

AQIM activities in the Sahel include attacks on army patrols, kidnappings of tourists, smuggling of arms and training of guerrillas and bombers, the officials in Stuttgart said. On Feb. 22, two Austrian tourists disappeared in southern Tunisia. The group claimed responsibility and demanded the release of one of its leaders, Abdel Rezak Al-Para, who has been jailed for life in Algeria.

Africom says the 2004 capture of Al-Para is an example of how U.S.-Sahel cooperation with partner countries can work: He was caught after a chase from Mali to Chad by Chadian troops helped by a U.S. Navy P-3C Orion surveillance plane.

AQIM in Algeria said on March 3 that it had killed 20 Algerian soldiers in combat in the rugged northeast of the country. The Algerian government wouldn't comment on the claim.

Suicide Bomber

On Sept. 8, 2007, a suicide bomber tried to breach a security cordon as President Bouteflika was on the way to the town of Batna, Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said in a statement reported by the U.S.-funded Magharebia.com Web site. Police confronted the bomber, who set off his device, killing 22 bystanders. AQIM claimed responsibility.

Algeria, ruled by the secular National Liberation Front since independence from France in 1962, is a major target of the AQIM operatives, U.S. officials in Stuttgart said. The militants are largely combat fugitives from the country's 1992-1999 insurrection, which left 200,000 dead.

Algerian AQIM suicide bombers took responsibility for a December 2007 attack that blew up United Nations offices and a court building in Algiers, killing 41.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Williams in Stuttgart at dwilliams41@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 22, 2008 18:01 EDT