Organisation of Young Free Algerians - Testimony From Mohamed Samraoui

Testimony From Mohamed Samraoui

Former colonel Mohamed Samraoui claimed in a 2003 book that the Algerian secret service had sponsored false flag attacks attributed to the Islamists but organized by them. He described a 1995 scene with Colonel Mohamed Benabdallah, officer of the Special Forces of the CCLAS (Centre de Commandement de la Lutte Antisubversive / Centre Command of the Antisubversive Fight.): "Colonel Mohamed Benabdallah would be proud in my presence for being one of the men in charge of OJAL, death squadron of the DRS created under General Toufik." According to Samraoui, the OJAL became active in November 1993, but its peak activity was during March and April 1994, when it claimed credit for tens of assassinations. "One can say that the real chief of the OJAL was General Mohamed Lamari, since he was the boss of the CC/ALAS, from which depended the paratroopers-commandos and the DRS elements responsibles of these crimes. Colonel Benabdallah indicated to me that if Islamists had committed numerous assassinations of political personalities, the Army had also engaged in this itself: it "struck back against all journalists, scientists or officials who gave support to the Fundamentalist cause."