108-679: Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb ( Arabic : تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي , romanized : Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī ), or AQIM , is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda ) that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state . To that end, it is currently engaged in an insurgency campaign in the Maghreb and Sahel regions . The group originated as
216-471: A British citizen was also killed and at least seven others were injured during the initial capture of hostages and assault on the plant. For a number of hours, the gunmen hunted door-to-door for foreigners. They dragged people from their hiding places, beating some who did not cooperate, and shooting others as they tried to run away. Some foreigners had their hands bound behind their backs, and some had their mouths taped. The gunmen affixed bombs to some of
324-541: A brigade led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar took expat hostages at the Tigantourine gas facility near In Amenas , Algeria . One of Belmokhtar's senior lieutenants, Abdul al Nigeri , led the attack and was among the terrorists killed. After four days, the Algerian special forces raided the site, in an effort to free the hostages. At least 39 foreign hostages were killed along with an Algerian security guard, although
432-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
540-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
648-585: A demand for the release of Aafia Siddiqui and Omar Abdel-Rahman , both held in American prisons on terrorism-related convictions. Other reports suggested the hostage-takers demanded the release of about 100 Islamist prisoners held in Algeria. They also demanded safe passage to Northern Mali and ransom for their expat hostages. According to U.S. officials, 132 foreign nationals were taken hostage. In all, more than 800 people were taken hostage. According to
756-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
864-516: A final assault to end the standoff. In addition, 16 foreign hostages were freed, including 2 Americans, 2 Germans, and 1 Portuguese. One Algerian hostage (a security guard) and 39 foreign hostages from nine different countries were killed during the attack. The nationality breakdown of the dead hostages, as of 25 January 2013 , was as follows: Cesar Laluan Jon Jon Falogm Julius Madrid of Laguna ; Silvino Imanil Raffy Edubane Iluminado Santiago Minister of Interior Dahou Ould Kablia said
972-468: A general pattern of acting independently, its policy of no negotiation with terrorists, and, according to Anouar Boukhars of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , that "Algerians are jealous of their sovereignty". Algeria's prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal in a press conference on 21 January praised the decision by Algerian special forces to storm the site, adding that the aim of
1080-406: A guard named Mohamed Lamine Lahmar succeeded in activating a plant-wide alarm, warning the whole site that a terrorist attack was in progress. Lahmar's actions made it possible for some people to hide and for others to shut down essential processes of the site and possibly prevent its destruction from explosives detonation. Lahmar was shot to death by the terrorists immediately afterward. In addition,
1188-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
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#17327762148561296-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
1404-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
1512-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
1620-738: A senior leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), planning operations and kidnapping Westerners in North and West Africa . He was wanted by the US Rewards for Justice Program with a $ 5 million bounty for his arrest. Hammam played a key role in perpetuating AQIM's terrorist activities in West Africa and Mali, and participated in several AQIM terrorist attacks in Mauritania. In December 2013 Yahya Abu Hammam gave an interview to Aljazeera in which he threatened France's military intervention in
1728-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
1836-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
1944-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
2052-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
2160-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
2268-535: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
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#17327762148562376-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
2484-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
2592-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
2700-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
2808-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
2916-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
3024-566: Is online at The Coroner's factual findings are here. A verdict of unlawful killing was reached for each victim BP are being sued in the US and in the UK for failing to protect their staff properly. On 22 February 2013, Sonatrach on behalf of the joint venture started up a limited production at the In Amenas plant, involving one of the three plant trains. Staff from Statoil and BP were not redeployed at
3132-821: Is reported that 90 per cent of AQIM resources come from ransoms paid in return for the release of hostages. Omar Ould Hamaha said: The source of our financing is the Western countries. They are paying for jihad . In December 2012, one of AQIM's top commanders , Mokhtar Belmokhtar , split off from AQIM and took his fighters with him, executing the In Amenas hostage crisis in Algeria weeks later, just after France launched Operation Serval in Mali. Belmokhtar later claimed he acted on behalf of Al Qaeda. In December 2015, Belmokhtar's splinter group , Al-Mourabitoun rejoined AQIM, according to audio statements released by both groups. A top commander of AQIM, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid ,
3240-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
3348-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - Misplaced Pages Continue
3456-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
3564-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
3672-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
3780-482: The 2016 Grand-Bassam shootings in Ivory Coast being carried out by black AQIM members. AQIM commander Yahya Abou El-Hammam, in an interview with a Mauritanian website, was quoted as saying "Today, the mujahideen have built up brigades and battalions with sons of the region, our black brothers, Peuls , Bambaras and Songhai ". Key leaders and operatives of this group included Yahya Abu El Hammam , who served as
3888-774: The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). It has since declared its intention to attack European (including Spanish and French) and American targets. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations , Australia , Canada , Malaysia , Russia , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom and the United States . Membership is mostly drawn from the Algerian and local Saharan communities (such as
3996-558: The September 11 attacks . As followers of a Qutbist strand of Salafist jihadism , the members of the GSPC were thought to share al-Qaeda's general ideological outlook. After the deposition of Hassan Hattab, various leaders of the group pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. In November 2007, Nigerian authorities arrested five men for alleged possession of seven sticks of dynamite and other explosives. Nigerian prosecutors alleged that three of
4104-517: The Soviet–Afghan War and dubbed "The Uncatchable" by French intelligence, was a senior commander in al-Qaeda 's local branch before deciding to form his own armed Islamist group late in 2012 after an apparent fallout with other terrorist leaders. Despite the split, his fighters remain loyal to al-Qaeda, a fact mentioned in their communication with the media after the initial assault. The Algerian Prime Minister said 32 terrorists were involved in
4212-533: The Tizi Ouzou province in Algeria. The Washington Times , in an article based on a senior U.S. intelligence official source, claimed a day later that the incident was not related to bubonic plague, but was an accident involving either a biological or chemical agent . Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is one of the region's wealthiest, best-armed militant groups due to the payment of ransom demands by humanitarian organizations and Western governments. It
4320-570: The Tuaregs and Berabiche tribal clans of Mali ), as well as Moroccans from city suburbs of the North African country. The group has also been suspected of having links with the Horn of Africa -based militant group Al-Shabaab . AQIM has focused on kidnapping for ransom as a means of raising funds and is estimated to have raised more than $ 50 million in the last decade. On 2 March 2017,
4428-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - Misplaced Pages Continue
4536-577: The gas field jointly with the British firm BP and the Norwegian firm Statoil . It supplies 10% of Algeria's natural gas production. The crisis began in the early morning of 16 January 2013. Around 32 Islamist terrorists in 4 to 5 vehicles, who had entered Algeria from Libya and northern Mali, attacked a bus transporting employees from a natural gas plant near the town of In Amenas in far eastern Algeria, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of
4644-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
4752-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
4860-1087: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. In Amenas hostage crisis Tuareg rebellion (2012) : 2012 coup Internal conflict in Azawad : Foreign intervention : 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 The In Amenas hostage crisis began on 16 January 2013, when al-Qaeda -linked terrorists affiliated with
4968-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
5076-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
5184-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
5292-544: The Algerian Government's account. They told HM Coroner that the military did not attack the Base deVie. Instead they attacked the vehicles carrying hostages and terrorists. A few Britons and Philippine hostages survived by chance when the vehicles in which they were being carried blew up or were overturned. See the transcript. An Algerian security source said that 30 hostages and 11 terrorists were killed during
5400-544: The Algerian government would not "respond to the demands of terrorists", and would not negotiate with the hostage takers. On the afternoon of 17 January 2013, the Algerian Special Intervention Group began an assault on the complex using helicopter gunships and heavy weapons. Algerian commanders explained they launched the assault because the gunmen had demanded to be allowed to take the hostages abroad. The Mauritanian news agency ANI said
5508-511: The Canadian authorities are not expected to lay any charges against him. Residents of London, both known and unknown to the trio, have expressed shock and disbelief at their deaths and the circumstances of their deaths. Medlej was variously described by high school friends as a good student who "got high marks but would hide it from his peers", played high school football, was loud, funny, a "wannabe thug", "kind of an ass sometimes, depending who he
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#17327762148565616-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
5724-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
5832-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
5940-596: The Sahara branch of AQIM merged with Macina Liberation Front , Ansar Dine , and Al-Mourabitoun , into Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin . The group's official name is Organization of al-Qa'eda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb ( Qaedat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Maghrib al-Islami ), often shortened to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( AQIM , from French al-Qaïda au Maghreb islamique, AQMI ). Prior to January 2007 it
6048-560: The Sahara would open "the gates of hell for the French people". In July 2010, Hammam was reportedly involved in the killing of a seventy-eight-year-old French hostage in Niger. In 2006, Hammam was sentenced to death in absentia by Algerian authorities for terrorism-related charges. Hammam was killed by French forces in February 2019. Allegations of the former GSPCs links to al-Qaeda predated
6156-693: The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab , and the Nigeria-based Boko Haram were as of June 2012 attempting to synchronize and coordinate their activities in terms of sharing funds, training and explosives. Ham added that he believed that the collaboration presented a threat to both U.S. homeland security and the local authorities. However, according to counter-terrorism specialist Rick Nelson with the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies, there
6264-465: The Tunisian and Algerian Governments in a video released on 13 January 2011. Al Qaeda offered military aid and training to the demonstrators, calling on them to overthrow "the corrupt, criminal and tyrannical" regime, calling for "retaliation" against the Tunisian government, and also calling for the overthrow of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika . AQIM leader Abu Musab Abdul Wadud appeared in
6372-563: The UK a coronial hearing took place from September 2014 and concluded in February 2015. 69 witnesses were called and most gave evidence from the witness box in Court 73 in the High Court in London. All were cross examined by representatives of families of the deceased. A verdict will be reached by the coroner on the cause of death of each Briton and on the security at the plant. The transcript
6480-546: The United Kingdom. France 24 broadcast parts of a phone conversation with a French hostage, who said he was being held along with British, Japanese, Filipino, and Malaysian nationals. On 17 January 2013, one Algerian security official told the Associated Press that at least 20 foreigners had escaped. Algeria's private Ennahar TV channel cited 15 foreign hostages, including 2 Japanese, a French couple and
6588-413: The accused had trained for two years with the then Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Algeria. In late 2011, the splinter group Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa was founded in order to spread jihadi activities further into West Africa. Their military leader is Omar Ould Hamaha , a former AQIM fighter. According to U.S. Army General Carter Ham , Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,
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#17327762148566696-412: The assault came while the terrorists were attempting to move hostages by vehicle. An Irish engineer who survived is reported as having said he saw four trucks of hostages being blown up by the Algerian forces. Hostages in two other SUVs were freed by the Algerian forces. Hostages who escaped from the convoy of 6 vehicles which left the Base de Vie heading for the Central Processing plant do not accept
6804-432: The attack comes from the transcript of the eyewitness evidence given to HM Coroner in London. Another source of information is the website for the In Amenas inquest. Tigantourine gas facility is located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) south-west of In Amenas , close to the Libyan border and about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) south-east of Algeria's capital city, Algiers. The Algerian state oil company Sonatrach operates
6912-400: The attack in Algeria. Yoon has maintained his innocence. In 2012, he was visited by an official from Amnesty International, but requested that the circumstances of his arrest and detention remain confidential. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Yoon was also visited by a Canadian government official in 2012. Yoon's family was unaware of his detention until more than a month after
7020-422: The attack, and that three were Algerian while the rest were made up of eight nationalities, including 11 Tunisians, 2 Canadians, plus Egyptian, Malian, Nigerian, and Mauritanians. An Algerian news website had reported that three Egyptians, two Algerians, two Tunisians, two Libyans, one Mali national, and one French national were among the attackers, but the French Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls disputed
7128-440: The attackers had been killed and 3 captured alive. The New York Times reported that one of the captured attackers said the Egyptians involved in the attack were also involved in the 2012 Benghazi attack . Libyan hardline Islamist sources declared that the kidnappers had logistical support from Islamists in Libya, such as aiding the media to contact the terrorists, while local Algerian outlets like Numidia News or TSA said that
7236-468: The attackers wore Libyan uniforms, had Libyan weapons and vehicles. The terrorists demanded an end to French military operations against Islamists in northern Mali , in return for the safety of the hostages. A spokesman claiming to represent the "Masked Brigade" (or al-Mulathameen Brigade) said the hostage seizure was a response to Algeria's opening of its airspace to French warplanes that bombed Mali's civilians five days prior. Another report mentioned
7344-412: The border with Libya, killing a number of the employees. At 5:40 AM, terrorist gunmen in Toyota Land Cruisers stormed the Base de Vie (accommodation block). The terrorists also attacked the Central Processing Facility (CPF) itself. The terrorists rigged the plant with explosives, and threatened a "tragic end" should attempts be made to free the captives. As the assault began on a bus carrying expats,
7452-487: The captives. Some foreigners were helped by local Algerians, who helped them hide. Subsequently, Algerian security forces surrounded the facility. At midday local time on 17 January the terrorists at Base de Vie decided to drive to meet those in the CPF. They loaded hostages into 6 vehicles and drove out onto the road. During the 3 km journey they were attacked by the Algerian military and all 6 vehicles were stopped. 4 were blown up and 2 were riddled with bullets. See
7560-463: The compound. At least 180 Algerian workers had either escaped the complex or been freed, according to local sources, with a number of others still remaining inside. Several Western officials expressed discontent with Algeria's failure to minimize casualties, while Japan criticized Algeria for failing to heed Japan's earlier request to "put human lives first and asked Algeria to strictly refrain". Analysts say Algeria's lack of consultation fit in with
7668-509: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
7776-652: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
7884-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
7992-462: The expression of support and help for the rebel movement to blame al-Qaeda for fomenting the uprising. [REDACTED] Media related to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb at Wikimedia Commons Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
8100-625: The eyewitness accounts at the London Inquest the terrorists were only interested in expats and did not tie up any Algerian Nationals. A statement released by the Islamist group to a Mauritanian news agency said they had 41 foreign nationals. Five were reportedly being held at the gas facility, and the rest at a nearby housing unit. The number included 13 Norwegians (4 of whom escaped to a nearby military camp), 7 U.S. citizens, 5 Japanese, 1 Irish, as well as nationals from France, Romania, and
8208-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
8316-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
8424-575: The hostage crisis, believing he was still studying Islam and the Arabic language. Yoon was briefly interviewed by the CBC in early 2013, via cellphone, while a group of inmates surrounded him to protect him from the guards and other inmates. CBC News reported 9 May 2013 that at least one among Medlej and Katsiroubas Canadian militants worked at the plant.[26] Yoon was released from prison in July 2013, and subsequently arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport;
8532-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
8640-563: The kidnappers was to "blow up the gas plant". He stressed that "The terrorists also shot some of the hostages in the head, killing them". The United Kingdom, Norway, the Philippines, France and Japan each have different methods of dealing with the overseas death of their subjects. France is carrying out a Judicial investigation. The French authorities will not exchange evidence with the UK Coroner. Norway has no Coronial process. In
8748-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
8856-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
8964-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
9072-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
9180-480: The military attacked the CPF bringing the siege to an end. An al-Qaeda -affiliated group, known variously as both Katibat al-Mulathameen ('The Masked Brigade') and al-Muwaqqi‘ūn bi-d-Dimā' (Arabic: الموقعون بالدماء 'Those who Sign with Blood'), perpetrated the attack. The terrorists were under the command of Mokhtar Belmokhtar , known also as Khalid Abu al-Abbas. Belmokhtar, a veteran of Algeria's civil war and
9288-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
9396-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
9504-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
9612-544: The presence of a French national among the attackers. Initially, Abdelmalek Sellal stated there was at least one Canadian dead among the hostage-takers, but did not identify him. He later identified the Canadian man only as "Chedad", and that "Chedad" had co-ordinated and headed the attack; survivors had described a young hostage-taker with fair skin, blond hair, and blue or green eyes, who spoke in perfect North American English. This led to intense media speculation in Canada, and
9720-533: The raid, which was reported as lasting eight hours. According to the ANI, terrorists claimed that 34 of the hostages and 14 of the Islamists were killed in this initial attack. According to a kidnapper who spoke with the agency, seven hostages were still being held – three Belgians, two Americans, one Japanese, and one British citizen. An Algerian security source earlier confirmed that about 25 foreign hostages had escaped
9828-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
9936-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
10044-569: The sole Irish national, as having escaped or been freed. Earlier, the Algeria Press Service news agency reported that some 30 Algerian workers managed to free themselves. According to U.S. officials, 100 of the 132 foreign nationals had either escaped or been set free by mid-day 18 January. The same reports stated that 500 Algerians had been rescued as of 18 January. One American worker was also confirmed dead on 18 January. On 19 January, 11 terrorists and 7 hostages were killed in
10152-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
10260-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
10368-447: The story quickly became a daily headline for several weeks. The two Canadian attackers' remains were later identified as those of as Ali Medlej, 24, and Xris Katsiroubas, 22, two friends, both of London, Ontario. The two along with a third friend, 24-year-old Aaron Yoon, also from London, traveled to Mauritania in 2011 to study Islam and the Arabic language. All three were born in Canada, and attended London South Collegiate Institute. Medlej
10476-445: The subject of his conversion to Islam, and uninvested in his schoolwork, until his conversion to Islam apparently provoked "academic curiosity" within him. On 19 January, Algerian state media announced that 11 of the hostage-takers were killed after a military offensive which ended the siege. Seven hostages were executed by the perpetrators during the offensive. Algeria's Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said on 21 January that 29 of
10584-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
10692-420: The transcript of evidence at the London Inquest . A few hostages managed to escape, including some Britons who helped other hostages. Some expats who were hiding in the CPF escaped on 18 January after the terrorists spotted them and opened fire. They walked for miles across the desert before they were rescued. On 18 January in the afternoon the terrorists detonated a bomb at the CPF murdering some hostages and
10800-433: The true figure is not known, as were 29 terrorists. A total of 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners were freed. Three terrorists were captured. It was one of many attacks in the Maghreb carried out by Islamist groups since 2002. There is evidence that the threat was increasing prior to this incident. There is also evidence of a direct threat to expat workers. The most detailed publicly available information about
10908-693: The video, calling for Islamic sharia law to be established in Tunisia . Al Qaeda has begun recruiting anti-government demonstrators, some of whom have previously fought against American forces in Iraq and Israeli forces in Gaza . AQIM endorsed efforts in Libya to topple the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi , though it remains unclear how many fighters in Libya are loyal to al-Qaeda, or members of it. Gaddafi seized on
11016-518: The word of God, or by helping them." Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operates a media outlet known as Al-Andalus, which regularly releases propaganda videos showing AQIM operations, hostages, and statements from members. According to London-based risk analysis firm Stirling Assynt , AQIM issued a call for vengeance against Beijing for mistreatment of its Muslim minority following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots . AQIM voiced support for demonstrations against
11124-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
11232-510: Was known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ( Arabic : الجماعة السلفية للدعوة والقتال al-Jamā'ah as-Salafiyyah lid-Da'wah wal-Qiṭāl ) and the French acronym GSPC ( Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat ). In January 2007, the GSPC announced that it would now operate under the name of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). On 19 January 2009, the UK newspaper The Sun reported that there had been an outbreak of bubonic plague at an AQIM training camp in
11340-504: Was little evidence that the three groups were targeting U.S. areas, as each was primarily interested in establishing fundamentalist administrations in their respective regions. In a 2013 Al Jazeera interview in Timbuktu , AQIM commander Talha claimed that his movement went to Niger, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, to organize cells of AQIM. He explained their strategy: "There are many people who have nothing, and you can reach them by
11448-437: Was raised Muslim; Katsiroubas, a Greek-Canadian, and Yoon, a Korean-Canadian, converted to Islam from Greek Orthodox and Catholic, respectively, during their high school years. At some point in late 2011, Yoon became separated from Medlej and Katsiroubas. In December 2011, in Mauritania, Yoon was arrested, charged, and convicted of terrorism, and sentenced to 18 months in prison, more than a year before Medlej and Katsiroubas staged
11556-983: Was reported killed by French and Chadian forces in northern Mali on 25 February 2013. This was confirmed by AQIM in June 2013. The United States National Counterterrorism Center stated that AQIM had a reputation for holding cultural and racial insensitivities towards Sub-Saharan Africans. The NCTC maintained that some recruits "claimed that AQIM was clearly racist against some black members from West Africa because they were only sent against lower-level targets." The bulletin goes on to say that former AQIM commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar in August 2009 stated, "he wanted to attract black African recruits because they would agree more readily than Arabs to becoming suicide bombers and because poor economic and social conditions made them ripe for recruitment." By 2016, AQIM had reportedly recruited large numbers of young sub-Saharan Africans, with attacks like
11664-415: Was with", a "good guy who stood up for a friend (who was being picked on)", and would on occasion slam his fist against a locker in frustration. Friends said Medlej was not very serious about his Muslim faith, saying that he would drink alcohol and smoke. Katsiroubas was described by friends as being seriously invested in his faith, devoutly attending prayers at the mosque; Yoon has been described as private on
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