Bamako: An al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group based in northern Mali warned Algeria of deadly revenge on Friday after Algerian officials rejected a hostage exchange, media reported on Friday.
The so-called Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of several emergent Islamist groups that seized control of northern Mali, claimed the April 5 kidnapping of seven Algerian diplomats from a consulate in Gao, in central Mali. Three of the hostages have been freed so far.
The group is demanding the release of three armed Islamists, arrested by Algerian security forces in a special operation near the southern Algerian town of Ghardaia.
In a statement issued on Friday, MUJAO said that the detainees belong to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), to which MUJAO is allied.
MUJAO said it demanded the Algerian government “to free our brothers” in exchange for MUJAO freeing one of the Algerian hostages.
“The Algerian government rejected the offer. Consequently, Algeria will be subject to all the consequences of this refusal,” the statement said.
MUJAO said among those arrested in Algeria as Abd Arrahmane Abu Ishak, who heads AQIM’s legal commission.
“We are giving an ultimatum of less than five days, starting from now, to save the life of the (Algerian) hostage,” MUJAO official Abu Walid Sahraoui said in the statement.
“We intend to treat the Algerian authorities firmly. We will defend our mujahedeen brothers … until the fall of the military regime in Algeria.”
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