Joint investigations between Algerian and French security forces revealed that 21 Algerians and five French of Moroccan origins were fighting with Al-Qaeda in Syria, after having sneaked into the country with other Libyan “volunteers”.

Joint investigations between Algerian and French security forces revealed that 21 Algerians and five French of Moroccan origins were fighting with Al-Qaeda in Syria, after having sneaked into the country with other Libyan “volunteers”.

The Algerian El-Khabar newspaper indicated that Paris asked the security forces in Tunis, Algeria and Morocco for information about the presence of French citizens of Moroccan origins in Syria, after noticing their disappearance in mysterious circumstances and suspecting their travel to Syria.

El-Khabar pointed out in a report it published Tuesday that “suspicions revolve around the presence of at least 10 French citizens of Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian origins,” adding that “investigators in the disappearance of 12 Algerians in the past six months found out that those have traveled from Libya to Turkey, and then sneaked into Syria to fight in the battle against Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.”

The information also revealed that Al-Qaeda branch in Libya has opened at least two camps for training volunteers from Morocco, Egypt and Europe. One of these camps was established on a desert area in Hon city in Libya, while the other was believed to be close to Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar (Green Mountain) eastern Libya; and that hundreds of Libyan fighters are currently in Syria, fighting with “jihadist brigades” there.

In parallel, two security sources in Mali stated that “Algerian citizen Mukhtar BilMukhtar, who is one the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have been in Libya for weeks waiting to be armed.”

One of the security sources indicated that “this is new evidence that terrorists are seeking to establish a network between the coast and the desert.”