On Jan. 18, the British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that some 40 al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) members died from an outbreak of the plague in the Tizi Ouzou province of Algeria. According to The Sun, the epidemic forced the group to turn its base into a mass grave and flee. Other sources such as the Washington Times have picked up on the story and are reporting that U.S. government sources say the incident occurred but have not confirmed the number of deaths or the agent involved in causing them. STRATFOR is carefully watching these reports to see if first, they are true (remember that the first story is quite often not the correct story), and second, precisely what occurred, in an attempt to determine if this was a natural outbreak of plague, or if it was an instance of the group experimenting with biological warfare.