| abstract | - The Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) ( ) is an Islamist militant organization which aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state. To that end, it is currently engaged in an insurgent campaign. The group has declared its intention to attack European, Spanish, French, and American targets. It has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State, and similarly classed as a terrorist organization by the European Union. Membership is mostly drawn from the Algerian and local Saharan communities (such as the Tuaregs and Berabiche tribal clans of Mali), as well as Moroccans from city suburbs of the North African country. The outfit has also been suspected of having links with the Somalia-based militant group Al-Shabaab. AQIM has focused on kidnap for ransom as a means of raising funds and is estimated to have raised more than $50 million in the last decade. Two top commanders of AQIM, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and Mokhtar Belmokhtar, were reported killed by French and Chadian forces in northern Mali on February 25, 2013 and March 2, 2013, respectively. Reports of Belmokhtar's death were contradicted three months later when the U.S. State Department added him to the Rewards for Justice list.
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