Al Qaeda vows to kill more French in north Africa

NOUAKCHOTT - The north African offshoot of Al Qaeda will kill more French citizens, a jailed senior leader vowed in remarks published Monday, following last week’s execution by the group of an elderly French hostage.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon declared “war” on Al Qaeda last week, after the network executed Michel Germaneau, an aid worker. The 78-year old French citizen was kidnapped in northern Niger in April.

“I say to the infidels, the French crusaders and worshipers of the Crusaders and the Jews, that we will not be happy until your blood fertilises the lands,” Khadim Ould al-Saman told the Akhbar Nouakchott newspaper in an interview from his cell in Mauritania.

Before Germaneau’s death, six members of the network were killed in a military operation carried out by the Mauritanian military aimed at preventing an attack by Al Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI).

France said that it contributed “technical and logistical means” to that operation.

Ould al-Saman, arrested for his membership in Al Qaeda in 2008, accused the Mauritanian government and the army of “apostasy for fighting with the infidels against Muslims”.

Two Spanish aid workers are still being held hostage in the North African desert since late last year.