ALGERIS (Sunatimes)-A reporter from El Khabar has crossed the Sudanese-Ethiopian border in order to look for the Algerians, who joined the ranks of the mujahidins to fight the international forces, the privately owned Arabic - language daily newspaper El Khabar reported on 4 April. El Khabar's journalist paper went through a number of stations where the Algerian jihadists had stopped on their way to the emirate of Al-Qa'idah in East Africa, where he tried to penetrate the line of fire and confrontation between the Mujahidin Youth Movement (MYM) which is loyal to Al Qa'idah and the government and international forces. He also searched for what was called by the international intelligence "the danger coming from the depth of Africa", which is represented by foreign Arab fighters, including Algerians, who were in the ranks of armed Islamic groups in the region.

The journalist of the daily said that he took off from Algiers Houari Boumediene airport to Khartoum International Airport. The journalist added that once he reached Khartoum, the task of finding Algerians, who went to fight in the territory of Somalia or what is known as "Africa's Afghanistan" had started by travelling for over an hour to the area of Jabra', a suburb of the capital where there is the mosque of Bilal Ibn Rabah and where the Algerians used to go frequently. The journalist indicated that one of the people who was inside the mosque told him "the presence of Algerians during the past years had attracted attention, but after the announcement of the war against the Ethiopian troops in the territory of Somalia, many of them had disappeared . They went to fight the Christians and the Ethiopians, who were backed by America and Israel".

The journalist said that he was received in a back room in the mosque and there he saw magazines coming from Britain. Those magazines dealt with the support of the so-called "blessed jihad" in Algeria and at that moment the journalist knew that he was on the right way to trace the Algerian fighters who had crossed into Somalia. The journalist added that this visit enabled him to get a phone number of one of the Salafis, who knows a lot of people who came from the Maghreb, including Algerians, who had frequented the mosque of Umar Ibn al-Khattab in the Arab market in Khartoum.

The journalist also said that on his second day of stay in Sudan, he went to "the Arab market" to meet one of the Salafis who comes from Syria "Abu-Asim" who informed him that after the announcement of war by the leader of the Mujahidin Youth Movement, Abu-Mansur, Algerians and others who were here in Sudan responded to the call. Some of them were here since the nineties and the others came between 2006 and 2008. They worked in the Arab market as porters and others worked in the trade in the same market, then they departed from Khartoum to Al-Qadarif and the border region of Kassala between Sudan and Ethiopia to cross the border into Somalia and joined the Mujahidin.

The journalist also said that such information had urged him to go to Kassala and he met there the emir of Ansar al-Sunna group, "Abu-Zayd Sayyid Hamza", who is known as the sheikh of the Salafi Jihadists in Central and East Africa, who gave lectures to many of those who belonged to the Mujahidin Youth Movement of Somalia. His followers went beyond Africa and reached Iraq to fight the US "occupation" forces, where the group of Ansar al-Sunna was founded. The sheikh did not mention specific cases but he indicated that he had heard about Algerians who went for Jihad to Somalia to fight the Americans and the elements of the Mossad.

The journalist added that after his journey across Ethiopia, he reached the region of Werder where he entered Somalia across the south in Beledweyne area on the border of Ethiopia. The journalist added that when he reached Beledweyne, his guide Ahmad contacted one of the men of the fighting Sunni groups and he explained to him that he was searching for Algerians who came to this region. "Algerians were here to support the Mujahidin Youth Movement", said Ahmad Sayyid al-Mirghali. He added "many inhabitants of Beledweyne remember the judge of the Mujahidin Youth Movement group, Aissani Ahmed Abou Abdallah El Ounchrissi El Djazairi and his relative named Abou Saeed El-Mouhajir, Mounir, Amour , Kamal and others about whom there were no news". The journalist also said that Ahmad Sayyid al-Mirghali had confirmed that those Algerians met their emir when they were in Afghanistan in the nineties. He also indicated "I heard that in the town of Haider (as published), there was a battle during which foreigners were killed, including three Algerians, who were buried there".

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