海角大神

Africa may be a different continent. But the videotape released聽Monday聽is familiar: Hooded jihadists parade a Western hostage who faces death in retaliation for his country鈥檚 fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

The abduction in Algeria of French tourist Herv茅 Gourdel by a splinter cell of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a clear sign of what security experts in Africa have been monitoring for months: the adoption of Islamic State messages and tactics, and the changing and fracturing of terror groups such as AQIM as they spit out new factions.聽

The Algerian聽group, called Soldiers of the Caliphate, split from AQIM earlier this month and pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the extremist group against whom France carried out airstrikes in Iraq last week. The group said it answered a call from Islamic State to attack foreigners. Mr. Gourdel was kidnapped on Sunday while driving through Algeria's mountainous Kabyile region.聽

Islamic State's rise loomed over a recent African Union meeting in Nairobi to discuss the continent's growing terrorism threat.聽

The Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has started beheading people. In northeast Nigeria Boko Haram has added to its guerrilla hit-and-run tactics and has begun to occupy towns and territory. Libya's Ansar al-Sharia has declared what it calls the Islamic Emirate of Benghazi, bolstered by Libyans sent home from Islamic State鈥檚 fronts in Iraq and Syria.聽

Monday鈥檚 kidnap video is a departure from standard AQIM tactics. While the Magreb affiliate of Al Qaeda has taken hostages for ransoms 鈥� used to finance its operations, as The New York Times reported this summer 鈥� a high-publicity execution threat is something new.聽

鈥淯sually it would all be kept very quiet and we wouldn鈥檛 necessarily know that we had a hostage until that hostage was released,鈥� says Simon Allison, a senior reporter at South Africa鈥檚 Daily Maverick and author of a recent paper for the Institute for Security Studies of the Islamic State鈥檚 effect in Africa. 鈥淎QIM wasn鈥檛 necessarily looking for publicity. They were looking for money. These new guys seem to be doing it mainly for publicity.鈥�

At such geographic distance from the Middle East, it鈥檚 unlikely that African groups are getting a great deal of direct attention or direction for their actions, Mr. Allison says.

Islamic State is likely to have a stronger influence among fringe groups of sprawling organizations like AQIM or among small unknowns 鈥渨ho use the mantle of the IS to give their own little causes a more noble, global cloaking,鈥� Allison says. Smaller groups are also more likely to adopt Islamic State鈥檚 brutal tactics.

The Islamic Emirate of Benghazi, declared at the end of July, may be the greatest inspiration to jihadi groups on the continent, by showing that it can mimic Islamic State鈥檚 territory grab in the Levant.

Citing Boko Haram as an example, Allison says, 鈥淏efore they were fighting this huge battle to overturn, say, the entire Nigerian state. Now they鈥檙e just fighting to occupy a bit of territory that can be part of something bigger. It鈥檚 a much more achievable target.鈥�

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e looking at, potentially in a few months or years鈥� time, is a鈥� noncontiguous state that doesn鈥檛 belong to any of the world institutions or subscribe to any of the world norms. It gives a lot of like-minded groups an end goal.鈥�