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Libyan secret services have found a desert operations camp of an al Qaeda-linked group GSPC after "intercepting" its members near the border with Chad, a French newspaper reported Sunday.
The Le Journal du Dimanche quoted a source close to the counter-espionage services of a European country as saying that Libyan agents found the cell 10 days ago in the remote, mountainous area of Tibesti in Libya's southern border with Chad.
It said that the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) was recruiting actively in the region. Militants were trained to use sophisticated explosives.
The newspaper connected the camp discovered by Libyans with the talk of possible attacks on European and US embassies or similar targets in Africa.
"Above all, it appears that the GSPC is clearly preparing terrorist attacks in Africa, on American or European targets --including French ones -- be they economic, diplomatic or tourist sites," it said.
An offer allegedly from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said on April 15 that the network would extend a truce to European countries if they withdrew troops from Muslim nations. It had been rejected by several European states.
A group related with al-Qaeda said it would continue to attack Europe after the three-month truce ends on July 15.
Numbering 4,000 to 5,000 members, the GSPC has grown to become the biggest of the two radical Islamic groups in Algeria since the civil war erupted after the presidential elections in 1992.
After rejecting an amnesty in 1999 and declaring its aim of creating a purist Islamic state, the GSPC stepped up attacks on government and military targets recently ahead of the imminent April 8 presidential elections.
The group, declaring allegiance to al-Qaeda, kidnapped 32 foreigners last year and threatened to kidnap more in early June.
Last month, the Algerian government declared that GSPC leader Nabil Sahraoui, alias Mustapha Abou Ibrahim, was killed in a battle with the army in the province of Bejaia.
(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2004)
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