But Riccardo Fabiani, the North Africa analyst of the London-based Eurasia group, said that some of the alarm over the recent attacks has been overblown when taken in a broader regional context.
Recently a recent report by Save the Children sounded the alarm over the increased use of child soldiers by a cultlike rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army.
John Grieve, leader of Glencoe mountain rescue team, which co-ordinated the search, said the alarm was initially raised by two climbers - who were not part of the group of six - when they discovered one of the casualties lying in the snow.
Rather than sounding an alarm and rushing to investigate as soon as one of their number disappears, a large group of combatants can often be tempted away one by one and slowly overcome.