In September 2008, an Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) message broadcast in jihadist Internet forums threatened France and Spain, warning those involved in "the war against Islam" to "repent" because "punishment is imminent." The message said AQIM will also continue to fight to drive France and the United States from Algeria. The threat was one of a string of Qaida-linked proclamations against the West. Two months earlier, an AQIM leader said the group was planning worldwide attacks targeting American, European, and "Jewish" interests because the group claims the U.S. is building military bases in southern Algeria and is taking Algerian oil. Meanwhile, in November 2007, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaida's second-in-command, issued a renewed call for holy war against North African leaders and their French, Spanish, and U.S. allies, his second such call after the terrorist leader's previous proclamation in September 2007 was followed by an attack on an Algerian police convoy escorting European workers in Bouira that injured two French workers and an Italian national. Zawahiri also announced that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group had allied itself with AQIM. As this report details, Al-Qaida's recent decrees and increasing terrorist attacks against Western interests in North Africa may indicate the escalating power of a pan-Maghreb terrorist organization that could threaten not only Western interests within the region but could also launch attacks in Europe. ...more

On November 25th 2007, three days of riots began following the deaths of two teenagers of North African descent who were killed after their motorbike collided with a police vehicle in the northern Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel. Similar to the riots in 2005, violence continued to escalate, and by the last day, riots had spread to the southern city of Toulouse. With many similarities to the 2005 riots, there is a possibility that the riots could escalate further but unlike the 2005 riots, youths are armed with hunting rifles and shotguns, in what some police officials are calling the beginning of an urban guerilla war. ...more