AQIM declining, but troubling -- scholar

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Though largely contained, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb poses a unique threat to North Africa that requires international attention, a scholar says.

AQIM is an Algerian affiliate of al-Qaida that pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden in 2006. The group has a global reputation for ferocity and maintains much of its leadership structure.

The group, however, has failed to spread much beyond the region. Nevertheless, writes Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, the group requires international attention in order to contain the threat.

Filiu, writing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, warns that AQIM's decline may encourage the broader al-Qaida organization to intensify its efforts in the region.

"The security paradox posed by AQIM is that its inability to project its 'global' terror beyond Africa intensifies the pressures from al-Qaida central to achieve such a breakthrough and to force the Algerian jihadi leadership to live up to this commitment," he warns.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with her Algerian counterpart, Mourad Medelci, to discuss cooperation on counter-terrorism efforts.

"We have talked about peace in the world, so therefore we haven't excluded any issue that has to do with peace," the Algerian minister said in statements to the media.