NIAMEY, Niger, May 24 (UPI) -- The jihadist alliance in North Africa has widened its war with two suicide attacks, including a French-owned uranium mine, in Niger, demonstrating the militants are able to cause mayhem across the region even as they battle French-led forces in Mali.
Thursday's attacks, which killed 19 people and five bombers, were claimed by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, which is allied with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
But a posting on jihadist websites indicated a worrying, and possibly further-reaching, menace: the return of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran jihadist commander whom France's Chadian allies claimed to have killed in Mali in February.
Belmokhtar's statement said his AQIM splinter group, al-Mua'qioon Biddam, -- the Those Who Sign In Blood Brigade -- participated in the double suicide attacks with MUJAO.
Belmokhtar, who lost his right eye fighting in Afghanistan in the 1979-89 war against the Soviets, said the attacks were mounted to avenge Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, another AQIM leader who was killed Feb. 25 by French and Chadian troops.
The statement was signed by Khalid Abu al-Abbas, one of Belmokhtar's aliases.
There was no way of verifying that Belmokhtar himself posted the communique.
But there has never been any confirmation that he was killed in combat as the Chadians claimed, whereas Abou Zeid's death was confirmed by DNA evidence obtained by the French.
The Niger attacks were the first suicide bombings in the former French colony and deepen the security crisis gripping North and West Africa that was largely ignited by the proliferation of weapons across the region after the eight-month war in Libya in 2011.
AQIM has been expanding its operations and influence since it swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden several years ago. It also has links with the Boko Haram Islamist movement that's now battling security forces in oil-rich Nigeria, Niger's southern neighbor.
Meantime, the desert regions across North and West Africa are increasingly in ferment as al-Qaida exploits the political turmoil triggered by the Arab uprisings against dictatorial regimes that began in Tunisia in January 2011.
Libya and Egypt, which toppled longtime dictators Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak, are still convulsed by political upheaval and face an uncertain future.
Al-Qaida has a growing presence in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where it mounts attacks on Israel.
Tunisia, where the Arab Spring started, is going the same way after what looked like a calm transition.
Last week, the post-revolution government headed by moderate Islamists clashed with jihadists and the country seems to be rushing headlong into a new spasm of violence.
Fighting continues in northern Mali, where French and African forces are battling AQIM and MUJAO in the mountains, with no sign the Islamists are near being crushed.
Against this backdrop, MUJAO's thrust into Niger spells big trouble, with wider strategic implications for France and Europe generally.
The bombing at the French-run uranium mine operated by France's Areva and Niger's Somair was probably targeted in part to retaliate for France's intervention in Mali, which pushed AQIM and its allies out of much of the vast territory which, armed with plundered Libyan weapons, it seized early 2012.
But viewed through the prism of Belmokhtar's seizure of the big In Amenas gas complex in Algeria's southeastern desert Jan. 16, just days after France went into Mali, the jihadists may be planning further attacks on Western energy and mining interests across the mineral-rich region where economies depend on these resources.
"We can expect regional countries, as well as Western countries active in the region, to bolster security for their assets in anticipation of future attack," the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor observed.
"France has long understood that uranium mining facilities in Niger would be attractive target for regional jihadists.
"Niger produces 40 percent of France's uranium imports -- a significant number for a country that derives 80 percent of its energy needs from nuclear power."
Niger has also contributed troops to the French-led force fighting in Mali.
But there's another reason it may have been targeted, and one that points to a likely U.S. move into this growing security morass: The Nigerien military installation at Agadez that was hit by MUJAO is favored as a base for U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles.
