I’VE SUSPECTED FOR SOME TIME that Al Qaeda has a major Algerian component (just search “algeria” in the search window to the left). It looks like someone agrees:

US special forces are hunting for Islamic militants linked to Al Qaeda along Algeria’s southern border with Mali in a little-known military operation aimed at destroying a key North African recruiting hub for Osama bin Laden’s global terrorist network, according to US and Algerian officials.

Small teams of elite US soldiers have been working with local security forces in recent months in the Sahara Desert in an effort to capture or kill members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, a radical Islamic organization that has pledged its allegiance to Al Qaeda and is suspected in terrorist plots in Europe and the United States, said the officials, who asked not to be identified.

I wish them luck.