Letter reveals al Qaeda split
Timbuktu, Mali – In their hurry to flee last month, al Qaeda fighters left behind a crucial document.
Tucked under a pile of papers and trash is a confidential letter, spelling out the terror network’s strategy for conquering northern Mali and reflecting internal discord over how to rule the region.
The document is an unprecedented window into the terrorist operation, indicating that al Qaeda predicted the military intervention that would dislodge it in January and recognised its own vulnerability.
The letter also shows a sharp division within al Qaeda’s Africa chapter over how quickly and how strictly to apply Islamic law, with its senior commander expressing dismay over the whipping of women and the destruction of Timbuktu’s ancient monuments.
It leaves no doubt that despite a temporary withdrawal into the desert, al Qaeda plans to operate in the region over the long haul, and is willing to make short-term concessions on ideology to gain the allies it acknowledges it needs.
The document, found in a building occupied by the Islamic extremists for almost a year, is signed by Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the nom de guerre of Abdelmalek Droukdel, the senior commander appointed by Osama bin Laden to run al Qaeda’s branch in Africa.
The clear-headed, point-by-point assessment resembles a memo from a chief executive to his top managers and lays out for his jihadists in Mali what they have done wrong in months past and what they need to do to correct their behaviour in the future.
Droukdel, the emir of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, says his fighters moved too fast and too brutally in applying Islamic law, Sharia, to northern Mali.
Comparing the relationship of al Qaeda to Mali as that of an adult to an infant, he urges them to be more gentle, like a parent: ‘‘The current baby is in its first days, crawling on its knees, and has not yet stood on its two legs,’’ he writes. ‘‘If we really want it to stand on its own two feet in this world full of enemies waiting to pounce, we must ease its burden, take it by the hand, help it and support it until its stands.’’
He scolds his fighters for being too forceful and warns that if they don’t ease off, the project could be in jeopardy: ‘‘Every mistake in this important stage of the life of the baby will be a heavy burden on his shoulders. The larger the mistake, the heavier the burden on his back, and we could end up suffocating him suddenly and causing his death.’’
The letter is divided into six chapters, three of which were recovered, along with loose pages, on the floor of the Ministry of Finance’s Regional Audit Department.
Residents say the building, one of several the extremists took over in the ancient city, was particularly well guarded with two checkpoints, and a zigzag of barriers at the entrance.
Droukdel’s letter is one of only a few internal documents between commanders of al Qaeda’s African wing that have been found, and possibly the first to be made public, University of Toulouse Islamic scholar Mathieu Guidere said.
The letter suggests a change in the thinking, if not the rhetoric, of Droukdel, who is asking his men to behave with a restraint that he himself is not known for.