Tagging doesn’t work in posts, the textbooks say nothing about it, because Algeria implemented a policy of not talking about it after the peace treaty was made, it stops talking about history past 1991.
My thoughts on it is that it was an after effect of the collapse of the USSR and the Americo-Saudi funded Afghanistan MCjihadists, they literally were the same ones coming in here, a lot of them were “Afghan-Arabs” coming back to the country, they used the same tactics, they just weren’t as funded and Algeria wasn’t as weak as the Afghanistan government.
The main turning point of the situation is considered to be the military couping the elected FIS, who were an anti-democratic anti-communist pro-landowner wahabbi fundementalists party, the reason they won is that they already had propaganda posts in every mosque, and the conditions of poverty Algerians faced in the last 80s due to the petrol price crash and Gorby being a scumbag. Many overlook this part but after the FIS was elected, a lot of work unions did a strike on them, so the economy went shit and banks and anything else stopped working.
The Algerian military couped the elected FIS, dismantled the party and arrested its leader and installed Mohammed Boudiaf (a socialist and an independence war hero) as the new president… he was assassinated on live television by his body guard.
The Militarized MCjihadists in Algeria used the exact same tactics used by the ones in Afghanistan, they used to throw acid on female college students, assassinate teachers, raid schools, bomb school busses, massacre villages, behead people, kidnap school girls and take them into the mountain for you know what. but their first major operation was bombing the Houari Boumedienne airport.
On the other hand the Algerian military used similar tactics to the soviets in Afghanistan, bombing areas suspected of having mchijahdists with Mil Mi 24 fire, enforcing checkpoints, creating a special force unit for anti terrorist and guerilla fighting, but also like in Afghanistan whatever the military did in the day didn’t mean anything, because they couldn’t do anything to the MCjihadists at night, sanctions were enforced on Algeria and it wasn’t allowed to buy night vision goggles, an enforced curfew past 5 PM, meant an instant death sentence to any home that had a slight bit of lit leaking out of it at night. A number of massacres happened with some units stationed not so far away, which lead to a lot of people into speculating and creating conspiracy theories that the massacres were committed by the military, a lot of these theories come from Wahhabi think tanks and they’re still being spread to this day.
Individual Algerian soldiers were corrupt and brutal, they used to steal cars at checkpoints then sell them at other areas, they tortured people, harass anyone with a beard, if they accidentally shoot the wrong crowd they’ll blame terrorists on it etc… a book called “الحرب القذرة” by “حبيب سويدية” which is the memoir of an Algerian special forces officer recounts some of that, and there’s another memoir written by “خالد نزار” himself who was the defense minister during that time.
Because of that, a lot of civilians ended up hating both the MCjihadists and the military, but some regions had a bias, my mom recalls (in the early 90s she used to live in an area with a high terrorist presence) that one time soldiers came in a with a regional leader of a terrorist organizations and then they crucified him and set him on fire, and the neighborhood was cheering them on.
The war ended under a peace project by the president Bouteflika, the peace deal was towards the individual fighters in the terrorist organizations, they were allowed to be free as long they weren’t linked to a specific crime, they had to get down from the mountains and give up their weapon. the war going on for 10 years and the terrorists losing funding and support from the people led to a ton of them agreeing on the pact, the ones left either run away to other countries like “Moukhtar Belmoukhtar” or are still running around in the mountains to this day.
The Militarized MCjihadists in Algeria used the exact same tactics used by the ones in Afghanistan, they used to throw acid on female college students, assassinate teachers, raid schools, bomb school busses, massacre villages, behead people, kidnap school girls and take them into the mountain for you know what. but their first major operation was bombing the Houari Boumedienne airport.
Looks like we watched Blowback Season 4 like before. So, it was bloody to that extent, huh
The main turning point of the situation is considered to be the military couping the elected FIS
How did the military end up fighting against them? Usually, it’s the stupid military coup men who come in and turn countries into reactionarism… such as Chile with Pinochet…
(I know military coups are a double-edged sword for revolution, but in the context of the post-USSR situation, it’s surprising)
Looks like we watched Blowback Season 4 like before. So, it was bloody to that extent, huh
I knew that you were here from Blowback from you saying “Algerian dirty war” lmao, so I made the paragraph around what the podcast already gave you.
How did the military end up fighting against them? Usually, it’s the stupid military coup men who come in and turn countries into reactionarism… such as Chile with Pinochet…
- The People’s army of Algeria is different than other armies in that it’s the successor of the national liberation army, it still had that name back then Khaled Nezzar (minister of defense) was a soldier during the independence war.
- It was close to the Soviets, not only in weapons but also training, tactics, strategy, they knew who these were and they knew they were not good, the military even banned women from wearing the hijab in the army and the police force during that time.
- the main interest of most organized militaries is being paid, the fascists in Chile were on the U.S. and western capitalists payroll so they followed what it told them, the FIS was destroying the economy by just existing so the Algerian military went against it.
- coup d’etats don’t work even if they’re lead by a socialist because they aren’t proper revolutions, most of the time the people don’t even know what’s going on and are just seeing another guy come into charge, that’s why Egypt did a 180 turn when Nasser died, same thing with Iraq and general Qassim.
