Report: Algeria accuses Bin Laden of financing Islamist groups
Algeria, Politics, 10/9/1998

The Algerian authorities have accused the Saudi separatist Osama Bin Laden of financing and arming the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which is considered the group principally to blame for massacres in Algeria.

The accusations were expressed in an article by a Spanish daily El Pais. The paper added that the director of the Algerian judicial police,Muhammad al-Sawli, presented a document which bears the accusation against Bin Laden during the annual meeting of the International Police Organization which concluded its meetings on Wednesday in Palma de Majorca Spain.

The Algerian police stressed that Osama Bin Laden, whose Saudi citizenship was withdrawn, helps the network that supports Islamic groups positioned abroad with "huge amounts of weapons, ammunition and supplies."

The document said that the training and gathering centers of the "Islamist terrorists" in the beginning existed in Albania and in Iran (in 1993) and now are in Afghanistan.

The document added that activists in the banned Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, exiled abroad, were supported by Bin Laden in raising funds and setting up a logistic structure for serving the GIA.

Previous Stories:
  Algerian forces besiege 50 gunmen   (10/8/1998)
  Some 15 gunmen killed in Algeria   (10/1/1998)
  Bin Laden pledges not to carry out activities from Afghan territories   (9/23/1998)

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