ALGIERS — Algeria continues to maintain pressure on the jihadist recruiting network targeting Maghreb youth to fight in Syria alongside Jabhat al-Nusra against the Syrian regime. Its security services, which have succeeded in dismantling some dormant cells in charge of recruiting Algerians to carry out jihad in what they call the Levant, have had to deal with groups operating in the provinces of Algiers, Ghardaia, Tebessa, Tlemcen, Oued Souf, Djelfa, Tiaret, Biskara, IIlizi and Annaba during the last six months.

Specialists on terrorism in the security services found that some of them are affiliated with the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS). This terrorist organization that was an armed wing of the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) and dissolved on Jan. 1, 2000, was presumed to have some remaining members active in the recruitment of unemployed young people.

The group has an active role in the armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups that began in 1991 following the annulled legislative elections.

The enrollment of Algerians to fight under the banner of Jabhat al-Nusra, which declared its allegiance to al-Qaeda in Iraq, is not new. Algerian fighters with solid experience in Afghanistan went to Iraq during the first war to fight against American army and stand by the Iraqi regime in its resistance against the coalition. In 2003, during the second war, Algerian jihadists came back in large numbers to sacrifice themselves in what they believe to be a “holy war" against what they consider to be crusaders. So far, Algerian authorities have identified 30 Algerian jihadists killed in Syria.