article_snippet: Islamist terrorists also have struck in Algeria, where Islamist terrorists killed at least 37 hostages at a gas field in 2013, and in Libya, where terrorists killed the U.S. ambassador and three others in 2012 and where ISIS has established a beachhead in the east.
article_snippet: Al Qaeda's North African offshoot Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has Al Qaeda's roots in Algeria, has captured territory in Mali and taken hostages -- often Europeans -- in countries such as Niger and Mauritania.
article_snippet: Algeria is home to a long-running Islamist insurgency.
article_snippet: In perhaps the highest-profile incident, Islamist militants attacked the In Amenas oil and gas plant in southern Algeria in January 2013.
article_snippet: Last September, another Islamist group beheaded a 55-year-old French hiker, Herve Gourdel, after seizing him as him walked in Djudjura National Park in central Algeria.
article_snippet: Militants affiliated with AQIM had previously also kidnapped foreigners in Algeria, including Italians and Spaniards.
article_snippet: In 2007, AQIM launched a suicide bombing campaign in Algeria, which included a deadly bombing against the U.N. headquarters in Algiers.
article_snippet: In late 2012, AQIM set up a branch in Tunisia called the Uqba ibn Nafi Brigade, a 60-strong Jihadi outfit composed of Tunisians, Algerians, and some Libyans.