Al-Qaeda's North Africa branch has blamed Germany for the death
of a German engineer killed during a military raid in Nigeria, though
authorities in Europe apparently complied with at least one of the
terrorist group's demands by releasing a prisoner it wanted freed.
German
Edgar Fritz Raupach, kidnapped in January by gunmen in the north
Nigeria city of Kano, died May 31 as soldiers launched a raid against
the house where his abductors held him. Nigeria's military later said it
had no idea gunmen held Raupach inside the home and that kidnappers
stabbed him to death as the raid began.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, the terrorist group that claimed it held Raupach, issued a
statement on an Internet forum this week saying the hostage's death came
only after the German government refused to negotiate with it.
"Your government gave the green light for the operation," the message posted late Monday night reads.
However,
the group, known by the acronym AQIM, had demanded that German
officials release Filiz Gelowicz, a German woman convicted last year of
supporting a foreign terrorist network. Gelowicz's husband was among a
group convicted of plotting unsuccessfully to attack US soldiers and
citizens in Germany.
German officials released Gelowicz from
prison in late April on probation after she served two-thirds of her
sentence. In May, an unsigned advertisement appeared in The Daily Trust,
the newspaper of record in Nigeria's north, showing a photograph of
Raupach and messages in Arabic and English calling for him to be
released. It remains unclear what went wrong in the negotiation or if
there had been a demand for a ransom payment, which happens regularly in
AQIM kidnappings.
In the message, first reported by the SITE
Intelligence Group, AQIM also warned European governments to avoid
"dealing in foolishness" during hostage negotiations, as that would
endanger lives.
Gunmen kidnapped Raupach from a construction site
in Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city, where he worked for Dantata
& Sawoe Construction Co. Ltd. Raupach's kidnapping came days after a
coordinated attack in the city by the radical Islamist sect in Nigeria
known as Boko Haram killed at least 185 people.
AQIM released a
statement in March claiming they had Raupach, as well as a video showing
him disheveled and asking in German and English for his country to help
win his freedom.
AQIM had not carried out operations previously
in Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people split
largely between a Muslim north and a Christian south. However, security
officials and diplomats say AQIM has loose links with a group known as
Boko Haram, a locally focused sect that wants to implement strict
Shariah law across Nigeria.
Boko Haram began its terror campaign
with gun attacks from the backs of motorcycles. Last year, it started
escalating its assaults with a string of suicide bombings targeting
churches, government buildings, and even the United Nations headquarters
in the capital Abuja. The sect has killed more than 560 people this
year alone, according to an Associated Press count, while Nigeria's military and security forces appear unable to stop them from striking at will.
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