Hassan Hatab, founder of the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has issued a communiqué urging group members to lay down their arms.
The GSPC joined Al-Qaeda in late 2006, changing its name to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
In the communiqué, Hatab said that he had learned from experience that fighting was a dead end, and that it was necessary to obey the clerics and to understand that shari'a requires a halt to the fighting.
Hatab laid down his own arms in 2003 and recently turned himself in to authorities.
Source: Al-Hayat, London, August 20, 2008
