London, 25 May (AKI) - An Algerian extremist believed to manage the al-Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)'s website has been arrested in the Syrian capital Damascus, an expert on Islamic extremism said on Wednesday. Hani al-Sebai, director of the London-based al-Maqrizi Institute for Historical Studies, announced Sakir Adil's arrest in a message posted to centre's website. According to al-Sebai, Adil was seized from a Damascus internet cafe and bundled onto a flight for Algeria. As well as being the alleged webmaster for the GSPC - one of Algeria's main Islamic terrorist groups - Adil is also accused of being a GSPC 'correspondent' for websites belonging to the Kurdish Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sunna and other terror groups.
Adil, originally from the eastern province of Skikda, has already been imprisoned in Algeria three times since he was 17, accused of having supported various jihadist groups. He left Algeria in 2003 and moved to Syria, where he was living until his arrest.
Last week, the GSPC claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in two different locations in which 12 Algerian soldiers died and seven were injured. One of these two attacks took place in Skikda, when militants detonated a home-made bomb as a military patrol was passing, injuring 7 soliders, the leading Arabic-language newspaper El Khabar reported.
El Khabar quoted security experts as saying the GSPC has intensified its attacks to sabotage a general amnesty expected to be offered to rebels and members of the armed forces this year. Despite the recent flare-up, extremist violence has tailed off sharply in the past few years, bringing back much needed investment to the country.
The GSPC denied responsibility for an infamous roadblock massacre of 14 people south of the capital on 13 April. The group, along with the other principal militant group, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), is the main police suspect for the killings. In recent weeks, government forces have launched a major manhunt in Islamic strongholds in eastern and western Algeria.
Militants - including the GSPC and the GIA - took up arms in 1992 and waged a campaign of violence after the government annulled elections that a hardline Islamist party was poised to win. The 13-year-long conflict has cost up to 200,000 lives and an estimated 30 billion dollars in damages.
TERRORISM: ALGERIAN SALAFITE WEBMASTER ARRESTED IN SYRIA SAYS EXPERT