Worry about Spaniards after French hostage killed (News Feature)

By Yasmin El-Rifae Jul 26, 2010, 15:46 GMT

Cairo - French citizen Michel Germaneau, 78, who was executed late Sunday, became the latest victim of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an organization responsible for multiple kidnappings, killings, and attacks in North Africa.

The death has deepened concern for two Spanish aid workers still being held hostage since last year in the North African desert.

Germanau was abducted in northern Niger in April while working on development projects, including building schools in the poverty stricken country and swiftly was moved to neighbouring Mali.

In June, AQIM said it would execute him by July 26 unless a number of its prisoners being held in North African countries were released.

Just hours before the deadline expired, the Islamist group announced that it had killed Germaneau in retaliation for a French- supported raid on Friday by the Mauritanian military in northern Mali. The operation left six AQIM fighters dead.

France, once the colonial power in Mauritania, says the operation was a preemptive move to protect the North African government's forces from militant attacks.

President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris called the execution 'a barbaric, heinous act' and vowed that 'this death will only reinforce our determination' to fight terrorism.

'We confirm that we have killed the hostage Germaneau in revenge for our six brothers who were killed in the treacherous operation,' an audio message from the AQIM said, announcing the execution.

The Mauritanian government has maintained a strict silence since the killing.

'If this information is true, Amnesty International vigorously condemns the assassination of Mr. Germanau,' said Agnes Brouwer, a campaigner with the human rights group.

'We reiterate ours calls for the release of the two remaining Spanish hostages, for whom we are very concerned, especially now, but also due to the difficult detention conditions,' Brouwer said by telephone to the German Press Agency dpa.

AQIM kidnapped two Spaniards in Mauritania in a coordinated and violent attack on a large convey bringing humanitarian aid to Nouadhibou, a poor town in the desert.

A third Spanish hostage, a woman, was suddenly released in March, after AQIM claimed she converted to Islam and noted her deteriorating health.

According to released hostages, they suffered from heat, insects and other difficult desert conditions while in captivity, though they did have enough food and water. However, they were subjected to intimidation on religious grounds and were pressured to convert to Islam.

Madrid says AQIM has insisted on a ransom for the remaining aid workers, in addition to its reported demand for that its prisoners be freed from Mauritanian jails. Both governments say they will not pay money or release captive fighters as part of a deal.

In 2009, AQIM killed a British tourist, Edwin Dwyer, after the British government refused to release a Jordanian extremist it was detaining.

Despite its name, AQIM was not always aligned with al-Qaeda's quest for global jihad.

Originally named the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the organization came out of the brutal Algerian civil war, which left over 150,000 thousand people dead after nearly a decade of conflict that erupted after the cancellation of the 1992 general elections by the secular-leaning government.

Only in 2003 did the GSPC announced its allegiance to al-Qaeda and took on a wider range of goals and declared enemies, formally joining three years later.

Since then, it has claimed responsibility bombings and the kidnapping and killing of hostages in North African countries. Abductions are believed to be a key source of funding for the group.

Despite concentrated counter terrorism efforts in recent years, which Western governments say has curtailed the group's ability to launch grand attacks, AQIM, as demonstrated by the death of Germanau, remains a threat in the region.