NARRATIVE SUMMARIES OF REASONS FOR LISTING
QI.D.232.07. ABDELMALEK DROUKDEL
Date on which the narrative summary became available on the Committee’s website: 15 June 2009
Abdelmalek Droukdel was listed on 27 August 2007, pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 12 of resolution 1735 (2006) as being associated with the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (QE.T.14.01) for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” this entity.
Additional information:
Abdelmalek Droukdel, a.k.a Abou Mossaab Abdelouadoud, is the Emir of the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (QE.T.14.01), formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). He assumed leadership of GSPC in mid-2004.
As an explosives expert for the Armed Islamic Group, a.k.a. GIA (QE.A.6.01), Droukdel built explosive devices that killed hundreds of civilians in attacks perpetrated in public areas.
In a statement dated 13 September 2006, Droukdel announced the official alliance of GSPC with Al-Qaida (QE.A.4.01) and pledged allegiance to Usama bin Laden (deceased). In a statement dated 24 January 2007, he announced that as a consequence of its merging with Al-Qaida, and after consulting Usama bin Laden, GSPC changed its name to the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. In a July 2008 interview with the New York Times, Droukdel again claimed responsibility for having GSPC officially join Al-Qaida and acknowledged the role played by Ahmad Fadil Nazal al-Khalayleh a.k.a. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (deceased) in the first phases of the merging process.
Under Droukdel’s leadership, the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb carried out a series of terrorist attacks, such as the October 2006 car-bomb attacks on the Dergana and Reghaia police stations in the eastern suburbs of Algiers, the attack on a bus carrying expatriate employees of the Algerian-American “Brown & Root Condor” oil company near Bouchaoui on 10 December 2006, the attack on a convoy of the Russian Stroy Transgaz company on 3 March 2007, and the seven car-bomb attacks on security installations in the Boumerdes and Tizi-Ouzou wilayat (regions) on 13 February 2007.
Droukdel also supervised the terrorist attacks against the Government palace and the office of the criminal investigation department of the police in Algiers, Algeria that took place on Wednesday, 11 April 2007. These car bombings killed 33 persons and wounded 245 others, the majority of whom were passers-by and neighborhood residents.
A few hours after the attacks, the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb broadcast a videotape on Internet sites and on television networks, claiming responsibility for these suicide bombings. They provoked unanimous condemnation inside and outside Algeria, including from the United Nations Security Council which issued a presidential statement condemning these attacks in the strongest terms (S/PRST/2007/10 of 12 April 2007).
The Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the 11 December 2007 attacks against the United Nations offices and the Constitutional Court building in Algiers in a statement issued on the same day. The United Nations Security Council immediately condemned the operations in the strongest terms (S/PRST/2007/45 of 11 December 2007). In his July 2008 interview with the New York Times, Droukdel again claimed responsibility for these bombings.
In August 2008, Droukdel directed the execution of three suicide-attacks that killed many civilians in the wilayat (regions) of Boumerdes, Bouira and Tizi Ouzou, Algeria.
Droukdel has encouraged The Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb to kidnap Algerian and foreign nationals as a way to fund its terrorist activities. The group was involved in holding two Austrian tourists abducted in February 2008 in southern Tunisia, in holding two United Nations representatives abducted in northern Niger in December 2008, and in holding four European tourists abducted in the border area between Mali and Niger in January 2009.
Droukdel was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by the tribunal of Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria, on 27 March 2007 for his involvement in Al-Qaida-related terrorist activities.
Related listed individuals and entities:
Al-Qaida (QE.A.4.01), listed on 6 October 2001
Armed Islamic Group (QE.A.6.01), listed on 6 October 2001
The Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (QE.T.14.01), listed on 6 October 2001
Mokhtar Belmokhtar (QI.B.136.03), listed on 11 November 2003
Saifi Ammari (QI.A.152.03), listed on 4 December 2003
Ahmad Zerfaoui (QI.Z.168.04), listed on 3 May 2004
Ahmed Deghdegh (QI.D.252.08), listed on 3 July 2008
Yahia Djouadi (QI.D.249.08), listed on 3 July 2008
Salah Eddine Gasmi (QI.G.251.08), listed on 3 July 2008
Amor Mohamed Ghedeir (QI.H.250.08), listed on 3 July 2008
Djamel Akkacha (QI.A.313.13), listed on 5 February 2013