By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An Algerian rebel group's recently confirmed allegiance with al-Qaida shows the outfit is looking to exploit international links after being cornered by security forces at home, analysts say.
Experts who have long followed the security situation in Algeria said the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French acronym GSPC, is not capable now of the kind of large-scale attacks on Western targets that al-Qaida calls for - but the GSPC could try to expand into such attacks to stay afloat.
"I think (the GSPC) are now in the process of playing their last card ... that is to say the al-Qaida card," said Hamida Ayachi, who has reported extensively on Algerian militant groups and now runs the Algerian daily Djazair News.
Al-Qaida announced its union with the GSPC for the first time in a video posted on the Internet in September to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
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