View source for Armed Islamic Group of Algeria

{{Short description|1993–2004 Islamist insurgent group in the Algerian Civil War}}
{{Infobox militant organization
| name             = Armed Islamic Group<br />{{lang|ar|الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة}}
| image            = {{multiple image
 | border = infobox
 | total_width = 320
 | image_gap = 20
 | caption_align = center
 | image1 = 
 | image_size = 25
 | caption1 = Flag of the GIA
 | image2 = Gialogo-1.jpg
 | caption2 = Logo of the GIA
 | perrow = 2
 | align  = center
}}
| dates            = 1993–2004
| leaders          = *Mansour Meliani: July 1992, arrested that same month.  
*[[Abdelhak Layada]]{{KIA}}: from January 1993 to May 1993
* [[Seif Allah Djaafar]]{{KIA}}aka Mourad Si Ahmed, aka Djaafar al-Afghani:  from August 1993 until his death February 26, 1994.<ref name="GKJTPI2002:263"/> 
* [[Cherif Gousmi]]{{KIA}}aka Abu Abdallah Ahmed: from March 10, 1994, to his death in combat on September 26, 1994.<ref name="GKJTPI2002:264"/>
* [[Djamel Zitouni]]{{KIA}}:  from October 27, 1994, until July 16, 1996.<ref>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.267-71</ref>
* [[Antar Zouabri]]{{KIA}}: from 1996 to 9 February 2002.<ref name="bbc-2-9-2002"/><ref name="GKJTPI2002:272-3"/>
*[[Rachid Abou Tourab]]{{KIA}}: killed July 2004. 
*Boulenouar Oukil: arrested 29 April 2005.<ref name="Algeria's top GIA rebel captured"/> 
*Nourredine Boudiafi: arrested sometime in November 2004.<ref name="Algeria reveals rebel crackdown" />
| leader           = 
| motives          = The creation of an [[Islamic state]] in Algeria
| area             = [[Algeria]], [[France]]
| ideology         = [[Qutbism]]<ref name="Tully">{{Cite journal |last=Tully |first=Sarah |title=Jihad in Algeria: Sayyid Qutb's Legacy on the Groupe Islamique Armé/Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Armée Islamique du Salut/Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) |url=https://www.academia.edu/7722103 |journal= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831150807/https://www.academia.edu/7722103/Jihad_in_Algeria_Sayyid_Qutb_s_Legacy_on_the_Groupe_Islamique_Arm%C3%A9_Armed_Islamic_Group_GIA_and_the_Arm%C3%A9e_Islamique_du_Salut_Islamic_Salvation_Army_AIS_ |archive-date=31 August 2017 |via=Academia}}</ref><br>[[Islamism]]<br>[[Jihadism]]<br>[[Islamic fundamentalism]]
| crimes           = [[Assassinations]], [[massacre]]s, [[bombing]]s, [[aircraft hijacking]]s, [[kidnapping]]
| attacks          = [[Tahar Djaout]] assassination, Djillali Liabes assassination, [[Cheb Hasni]] assassination, 1994, [[Air France Flight 8969]] hijacking, [[January 1995 Algiers bombing]], [[1995 France bombings]], [[Murder of the monks of Tibhirine]], [[Lounès Matoub]] assassination, [[Hidroelektra workers massacre]]
| status           = 
| allies           = {{flagicon|Sudan}} [[Sudan]] (alleged)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mannes |first=Aaron |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=lJwIhKrx0FAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA8 |title=Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations |date=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-3525-1 |pages=8 |language=en}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Iran}} [[Iran]] (alleged)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mannes |first=Aaron |url=https://www.google.com/books?id=lJwIhKrx0FAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA8 |title=Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations |date=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-3525-1 |pages=8 |language=en}}</ref><br>[[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]] (until 1995)
| opponents        = {{flagicon|Algeria}} [[Algeria|Algerian government]]
| war              = [[Algerian Civil War]]
| designated_as_terror_group_by = {{flag|Algeria}}<br>{{flag|Argentina}}<br>{{flag|Bahrain}}<br>{{flag|France}}<br>{{flag|Japan}}<br>{{flag|New Zealand}}<br>{{flag|United Kingdom}}<br>{{flag|United Nations}}<br>{{flag|United States}}
}}

The '''Armed Islamic Group''' ('''GIA''', from {{langx|fr|Groupe Islamique Armé}}; {{langx|ar|الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة|al-Jamāʿa al-ʾIslāmiyya al-Musallaḥa}}) was one of the two main [[Islamist]] insurgent groups that fought the [[Algerian government]] and [[Algerian Army|army]] in the [[Algerian Civil War]].

It was created from smaller armed groups following the [[1992 Algerian coup d'état|1992 military coup]] and the arrest and internment of thousands of officials in the [[Islamic Salvation Front]] (FIS) party after it won the first round of [[Algerian legislative election, 1991|parliamentary elections]] in December 1991. It was led by a succession of ''amirs'' (commanders) who were killed or arrested one after another. Unlike the other main armed groups, the [[Islamic Armed Movement]] (MIA) and the [[Islamic Salvation Army]] (AIS), the GIA sought not to bargain with the government, but to overthrow it and "purge the land of the ungodly" in its pursuit of an [[Islamic state]].<ref name=GKJTPI2002:260>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.260, 266</ref> The slogan inscribed on all its communiques was: "no agreement, no truce, no dialogue".<ref name=GKJTPI2002:260/> GIA's ideology was inspired by the [[Jihadism|Jihadist]] writings of the Egyptian Islamist scholar [[Sayyid Qutb]].<ref name="Tully">{{Cite journal |last=Tully |first=Sarah |title=Jihad in Algeria: Sayyid Qutb's Legacy on the Groupe Islamique Armé/Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Armée Islamique du Salut/Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) |url=https://www.academia.edu/7722103 |journal= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831150807/https://www.academia.edu/7722103/Jihad_in_Algeria_Sayyid_Qutb_s_Legacy_on_the_Groupe_Islamique_Arm%C3%A9_Armed_Islamic_Group_GIA_and_the_Arm%C3%A9e_Islamique_du_Salut_Islamic_Salvation_Army_AIS_ |archive-date=31 August 2017 |via=Academia}}</ref>

The group desired to create "an atmosphere of general insecurity"<ref name=GKJTPI2002:260/> and employed [[kidnapping]], [[assassination]], and bombings, including [[car bomb]]s, and targeted security forces and civilians. Between 1992 and 1998, the GIA conducted a violent campaign of [[List of Algerian massacres of the 1990s|civilian massacres]], sometimes wiping out entire villages in its area of operation (notably in [[Bentalha massacre|Bentalha]] and [[Rais massacre|Rais]]). It attacked and killed other Islamists who had left the GIA or attempted to negotiate with the government. It also targeted foreign civilians living in Algeria, killing more than 100 expatriate men and women.

The group also established a presence in France, Belgium, Britain, Italy, and the United States. It launched terror attacks in France in 1994 and [[1995 France bombings|1995]]. While it was the "undisputed principal Islamist force" in Algeria in 1994,<ref name=GKJTPI2002:265/> militants were deserting "in droves" by 1996, alienated by its execution of civilians and Islamist leaders.<ref>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.269-70</ref>

In 1999, a government [[amnesty law]] motivated large numbers of jihadis to "repent". The remnants of the GIA proper were hunted down over the next two years, leaving a splinter group the [[Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat]] (GSPC),<ref name="roberts-2003-269">Hugh Roberts, ''The Battlefield Algeria, 1988-2002: Studies in a Broken Polity'', Verso: London 2003, p. 269: "Hassan Hattab's GSPC which has condemned the GIA's indiscriminate attacks on civilians and, since going it alone, has tended to revert to the classic MIA-AIS strategy of confining its attacks to guerrilla forces",</ref> which announced its support for [[Al-Qaeda]] in October 2003.<ref name="Whitlock A01">{{Cite news|title=Al-Qaeda's Far-Reaching New Partner|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402006.html|first=Craig|last=Whitlock|newspaper=Washington Post|date=5 October 2006|page=A01|access-date=2017-09-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810212351/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402006.html|archive-date=2017-08-10|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Algerian group backs al-Qaeda">{{Cite book|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3207363.stm|title=Algerian group backs al-Qaeda|work=BBC News|date=23 October 2003|access-date=7 November 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040622145250/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3207363.stm|archive-date=2004-06-22|url-status=live}}</ref> The extent to which the group was [[Double agent|infiltrate]]d and manipulated by Algerian security services is disputed.<ref name="bbc-2-9-2002"/><ref name="Ajami-2010"/><ref name="Schindler-2012"/><ref name="hrw-1994"/><ref name=wluml/>

The GIA is considered a [[terrorist]] organisation by the governments of [[Algeria]], [[Government of France|France]], the [[United States]], [[Argentina]],<ref name="arg-repet">{{cite web |work=Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Nación |trans-work=Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (Argentina) |title=Registro Público de Personas y Entidades vinculadas a actos de Terrorismo y su Financiamiento (RePET) |url=https://repet.jus.gob.ar/#entidades |access-date=20 February 2020 |language=es}}</ref> [[Bahrain]],<ref name="bahrain-list">{{cite web |title=Bahrain Terrorist List (individuals – entities) |url=https://www.mofa.gov.bh/Default.aspx?tabid=12342&language=en-US |access-date=3 March 2020 |publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain}}</ref> [[Japan]],<ref name="jp-list1">{{cite web |author=[[National Police Agency (Japan)]] |date=18 February 2022 |title=国際テロリスト財産凍結法第３条に基づき公告された国際テロリスト |url=https://www.npa.go.jp/bureau/security/terrorism/040218/040218.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302155009/https://www.npa.go.jp/bureau/security/terrorism/040218/040218.pdf |archive-date=2 March 2022 |accessdate=2 March 2022 |language=Japanese}}</ref> [[New Zealand]],<ref name="nz-un-list">{{cite web |date=24 February 2020 |title=Lists associated with Resolutions 1267/1989/2253 and 1988 |url=https://www.police.govt.nz/advice/personal-community/counterterrorism/designated-entities/lists-associated-with-resolutions-1267-1989-2253-1988 |access-date=2 March 2020 |publisher=New Zealand Police}}</ref> the [[United Kingdom]],<ref name="homeoffice">{{cite web |title=Proscribed terrorist groups |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2 |access-date=2 March 2020 |work=[[Home Office]]}}</ref> and the [[United Nations]].<ref name="un-qd-list">{{cite web |title=Narrative Summaries of Reasons for Listing (ISIL & Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee) |url=https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/1267/aq_sanctions_list/summaries |access-date=2 March 2020 |publisher=United Nations Security Council}}</ref> The GIA remains a Proscribed Organisation in the [[United Kingdom]] under the [[Terrorism Act 2000]].<ref>{{cite act |title=Terrorism Act 2000 |title-link=Terrorism Act 2000 |date=2000-07-20 |orig-section=c. 11, sched. 2 |chapter=Proscribed Organisations |reporter=UK Public General Acts |chapter-url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121085241/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/schedule/2 |archive-date=2013-01-21 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Canada]] listed GIA as a terrorist entity until 18 June 2024.<ref name="canada-list">{{cite web |date=21 December 2018 |title=Currently listed entities |url=https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301160957/https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/cntr-trrrsm/lstd-ntts/crrnt-lstd-ntts-en.aspx |archive-date=1 March 2020 |access-date=2 March 2020 |work=Public Safety Canada |publisher=Government of Canada}}</ref>

==History==
===Founding===
According to Algerian veterans of the [[Afghan Arabs|Afghan jihad]] who founded the GIA, the idea of forming an armed group to fight jihad against the Algerian government was developed not after the coup, but after leaders of the [[Islamic Armed Movement|MIA]] were freed from prison in 1989. The idea was not acted on then due to the spectacular electoral political success of the FIS.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:257>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.257</ref> Embracing Sayyid Qutb's ''[[takfir]]'' (excommunication) of secular governments and assertion that engaging in armed ''[[jihad]]'' against ''[[Jahiliyyah|Jaahili]]'' societies was mandatory; GIA leaders condemned the [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|FLN]] regime as apostates and called upon Algerians to rise up, pledge allegiance to them, and violently overthrow the [[Socialism|socialist]] government in pursuit of establishing an [[Islamic state]] in Algeria. The support base of the GIA mainly consisted of the educationally and economically underprivileged classes of Algerian society.<ref name="Tully"/>

Early in 1992, [[Mansour Meliani]], a former aid to Bouyali, along with many "[[Afghan Arabs|Afghans]]", broke with his former friend [[Abdelkader Heresay]] and left the MIA, founding his own Jihadi group around July 1992. Meliani was arrested in July and executed in August 1993. He was replaced by Mohammed Allal, aka Moh Leveilley, who was killed on 1 September 1992 by the Algerian military when it attacked a meeting held to unify command of the jihad.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:259>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.259</ref>

In the early 1990s, the economic state of Algeria was dire.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mourad |first=Khaldoon A. |last2=Avery |first2=Helen |date=2019 |title=The Sustainability of Post-Conflict Development: The Case of Algeria |url=https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3036 |journal=Sustainability |volume=11 |issue=11 |pages=3036 |via=MDPI}}</ref> 41% of Algerians ages 15–24 were unemployed in 1990.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chapan Metz |first=Helen |title=Algeria: A Country Study |publisher=Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress |year=1994}}</ref> Young Algerians were a main part of the GIA; it was able to "enlist young Algerians who felt overall excluded from mainstream society and the country’s political life", according to a study from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ould Khettab |first=Djamila |date=2018 |title=Comparative Study of Transitional Justice in Africa: Algeria |url=https://www.csvr.org.za/comparative-study-of-transitional-justice-in-africa/ |access-date=4 October 2025 |website=CSVR}}</ref>

====Abdelhak Layada====
Leveilley was replaced in January 1993 by [[Abdelhak Layada]], who declared his group independent of the FIS and MIA and not obedient to its orders. It adopted the radical [[Omar El-Eulmi]] as a spiritual guide, and Layada affirmed that "political pluralism is equivalent to sedition".<ref name="gia-pluralism">[[Abdelhak Layada]], quoted in ''[[Jeune Afrique]]'', 27 January 1994.</ref><ref name="Rault-2010">{{cite web|last1=Rault|first1=Charles|title=THE FRENCH APPROACH TO COUNTERTERRORISM|url=https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-french-approach-to-counterterrorism|publisher=Combating Terrorism Center at West Point|access-date=4 June 2015|date=January 13, 2010|quote=Abdelhak Layada, one of the founders of the GIA, was quoted as saying "political pluralism is equivalent to sedition." See Jeune Afrique, January 27, 1994.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604203046/https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-french-approach-to-counterterrorism|archive-date=2015-06-04|url-status=live}}</ref> He also believed jihad in Algeria was ''[[fard]] ayn'', or an individual obligation of adult male Muslims.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:261>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.261</ref>  Layada threatened not just security forces but journalists ("grandsons of France") and the families of Algerian soldiers.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:260/> From its inception on, the GIA called for and implemented the killing of anyone collaborating with or supporting the authorities, including government employees such as teachers and civil servants.{{Citation needed|date=June 2015}} 
Layada did not last long and was arrested in Morocco in May 1993.

Besides the GIA, the other major branch of the Algerian resistance was the MIA. It was led by the ex-soldier "General" Abdelkader Chebouti, and was "well-organized and structured and favored a long-term jihad" targeting the state and its representatives and based on a guerrilla campaign like that of the War of Independence.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:260/> From prison, Ali Benhadj issued a fatwa giving the MIA his blessing.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:260/> In March 2006, Abdelhak Layada was released from prison, amnesty measures provided for in the Charter for Peace and Reconciliation launched by the president, [[Abdelaziz Bouteflika]], even offering himself as a mediator to seek a truce between the government and the [[al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb|Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.europapress.es/internacional/noticia-argelia-argelia-libera-antiguo-lider-gia-abdelhak-layada-dentro-medidas-amnistia-20060313142012.html|title=Argelia- Argelia libera al antiguo líder del GIA Abdelhak Layada, dentro de las medidas de amnistía|work=Europa Press|date=13 March 2006 |accessdate=2021-12-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4801318.stm|title=Islamist leader freed in Algeria|work=BBC News|date=13 March 2006 |accessdate=2021-12-12}}</ref>

====Djafar al-Afghani====
On August 21, 1993,  Seif Allah Djafar, aka Mourad Si Ahmed, aka Djafar al-Afghani, a 30-year-old black marketer with no education beyond primary school, became GIA amir.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:263>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.263</ref> Violence escalated under Djafar, as did the GIA's base of support outside of Algeria.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:263/>
 
Under him, the group named and assassinated specific journalists and intellectuals (such as [[Tahar Djaout]]), saying that "The journalists who fight against Islamism through the pen will perish by the sword."<ref name="gia-pen-sword">[[Sid Ahmed Mourad]], quoted in ''Jeune Afrique'', 27/1/94.</ref><ref name="Sukys-19">{{cite book|last1=Sukys|first1=Julija|title=Silence Is Death: The Life and Work of Tahar Djaout|date=2007|publisher=U of Nebraska Press.|page=19|isbn=978-0803205956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5W_bNbg50EC&q=%22The+journalists+who+fight+against+Islamism+through+the+pen+will+perish+by+the+sword%22&pg=PA19|access-date=3 June 2015}}</ref> 
The GIA explicitly affirmed that it "did not represent the armed wing of the FIS",<ref name="gia-not-fis">[[Agence France-Presse]], 20 November 1993, quoted in [https://books.google.com/books?id=cJQEXc7wRA8C&dq=%22did+not+represent+the+armed+wing+of+the+FIS%22+agence+france+presse&pg=PA54 Human Rights Abuses in Algeria: No One is Spared]  By Andrew Whitley, [[Human Rights Watch]], 1994, p.54</ref> and issued death threats against several FIS and MIA members, including MIA's Heresay and FIS's Kebir and Redjam.

About the time al-Afghani took power of GIA, a group of Algerian jihadists returning from Afghanistan came to London. Together with Islamist intellectual [[Abu Qatada al-Filistini|Abu Qatada]], they started up a weekly magazine, ''Usrat al-Ansar'' as a GIA propaganda outlet. Abu Qatada "provided the intellectual and ideological firepower" to justify GIA actions,<ref name=GKJTPI2002:263/> and the journal became "a trusted source of news and information about the GIA for Islamists around the world."<ref name="GJTP-2009-119">{{cite book|last1=Brachman|first1=Jarret M.|title=Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice|date=2009|publisher=Routledge.|pages=119–120|isbn=9781134055418|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zd8AgAAQBAJ&q=al-ansar+and+gia+algeria&pg=PA120|access-date=4 June 2015}}</ref>

The GIA soon broadened its attacks to civilians who refused to live by their prohibitions, and then foreigners living in Algeria. A hostage released on 31 October 1993 carried a message ordering foreigners to "leave the country. We are giving you one month. Anyone who exceeds that period will be responsible for his own sudden death."<ref name="killing-foreigners">''[[The Times]]'', 20 November 1993.</ref>  By the end of 1993 26 foreigners had been killed.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:264>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.264</ref>

In November 1993 Sheik Mohamed Bouslimani "a popular figure who was prominent" in [[Movement of Society for Peace|Hamas party]] of [[Mahfoud Nahnah]] was kidnapped and executed after "refusing to issue a fatwa endorsing the GIA's tactics."<ref name=GKJTPI2002:264/>

Djafar was killed by [[GIGN|French security forces]] on December 26, 1994 during the raid on [[Air France Flight 8969|Air France flight 8969]].<ref name="GKJTPI2002:263"/>

====Cherif Gousmi====

[[Cherif Gousmi]], aka Abu Abdallah Ahmed, became amir March 10, 1994. Under him, the GIA reached its "high water mark",<ref name="GKJTPI2002:264"/> and became the "undisputed principal Islamist force" in Algeria.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:265>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.265</ref>  In May, Islamist leaders [[Abderrezak Redjam]] (allegedly representing the FIS), [[Muhammad Said (GIA)|Mohammed Said]], the exiled [[Anwar Haddam]], and the MEI's [[Said Makhloufi]] joined the GIA; a blow to the FIS and surprise since the GIA had been issuing death threats against the three since November 1993. This was interpreted by many observers as either the result of intra-FIS competition or as an attempt to change the GIA's course from within.  On 26 August, the group declared a "[[Caliphate]]", or Islamic government for Algeria, with Gousmi as [[Caliph|Commander of the Faithful]],<ref name=FFAEC>{{cite book|title=Fields of Fire: An Atlas of Ethnic Conflict|date=2009|publisher=Lulu|page=2.07|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g97mAgAAQBAJ&q=GIA+caliphate+algeria&pg=SA2-PA7|access-date=4 June 2015|chapter=Algeria|isbn=9780955465772}}</ref> Mohammed Said as head of government, the US-based Haddam as foreign minister, and Mekhloufi as provisional interior minister.

However, the very next day Said Mekhloufi announced his withdrawal from the GIA, claiming that the GIA had deviated from Islam and that this "Caliphate" was an effort by Mohammed Said to take over the GIA, and Haddam soon afterwards denied ever having joined it, asserting that this Caliphate was an invention of the security services.  The GIA continued attacking its usual targets, notably assassinating artists, such as [[Cheb Hasni]], and in late August added a new one to its list, threatening schools which allowed mixed classes, music, gym for girls, or not wearing [[hijab]] with [[arson]].   He was killed in combat on September 26, 1994.

====Djamel Zitouni====
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Djamel Zitouni.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Djamel Zitouni]] was the leader of the GIA from 1994–96]] -->
Cherif Gousmi was eventually succeeded by [[Djamel Zitouni]] who became GIA head on October 27, 1994. He was the responsible for carrying out a [[1995 bombings in France|series of bombings in France in 1995]].<ref>''[[Institute for Counter Terrorism]]'', 2 June 1999 [http://www.ict.org.il/spotlight/det.cfm?id=271] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004070159/http://www.ict.org.il/spotlight/det.cfm?id=271|date=2006-10-04}}.</ref> He was killed by a rival faction on July 16, 1996.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYYyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA488 |title=Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism |first=Mathieu |last=Guidère |author-link=Mathieu Guidère |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |date=10 September 2017 |page=488 |isbn=9781538106709 |edition=2}}</ref>

====Antar Zouabri and takfir====
Antar Zouabri, was the longest serving "emir" (1996–2002) was nominated by a faction of the GIA "considered questionable by the others".<ref name=GKJTPI2002:272>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.272</ref>  The 26-year-old activist was a "close confidant" of Zitouni and continued his  policy of "ever increasing violence and redoubled purges".<ref name=GKJTPI2002:272/>  Zouabri opened his reign as emir by issuing a manifesto entitled ''The Sharp Sword'', presenting Algerian society as resistant to jihad and lamented that the majority of the people had "forsaken religion and renounced the battle against its enemies," but was careful to deny that the GIA had ever accused Algerian society itself of impiety (''[[Kafir|kufr]]'').<ref>''Al seif al battar'', p.39-40</ref>

Convinced of Zouabri's salafist orthodoxy, Egyptian veteran of the Afghan jihad [[Abu Hamza]] restarted the Al-Ansar bulletin/magazine in London.<ref name=GKJTPI2002:272/> 
During the month of Ramadan (January–February 1997) hundreds of civilians were killed in massacres<ref name="cnn-1-6-98">{{cite news|title=Hundreds murdered in widespread Algeria attacks|url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/06/algeria.massacre.update/|access-date=11 June 2015|agency=cnn|date=January 6, 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924191830/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/06/algeria.massacre.update/|archive-date=2015-09-24|url-status=live}}</ref> some with their throats cut. The massacres continued for months and culminated in August and September when hundreds of men women and children were killed in the villages of [[Rais massacre|Rais]], [[Bentalha massacre|Bentalha]], Beni Messous. Pregnant women were sliced open, children were hacked to pieces or dashed against walls, men's limbs were hacked off one by one, and, as the attackers retreated, they would kidnap young women to keep as sex slaves.<ref name=HRW>{{cite web|title=World Report 1999. Human Rights Developments|website=Human Rights Watch|access-date=11 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081113084500/http://www.hrw.org/worldreport99/mideast/algeria.html|archive-date=13 November 2008|url=https://www.hrw.org/worldreport99/mideast/algeria.html}}</ref> The GIA issued a communiques signed by Zouabri claiming responsibility for the massacres and justifying them—in contradiction to his manifesto—by declaring impious ([[takfir]]) all those Algerians who had not joined its ranks.<ref name="GKJTPI2002:272-3">[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.272-3</ref>   In London Abu Hamzu criticised the communique and two days later (September 29) announced the end of his support and the closure of the bulletin, cutting off GIA's communication with international Islamist community and the rest of the outside world.<ref name="GKJTPI2002:272-3"/> In Algeria, the slaughters drained the GIA of popular support (although evidence showed security forces cooperated with the killers preventing civilians from escaping, and may even have controlled the GIA). A week earlier the AIS insurgents announced it would declare a unilateral truce starting in October.<ref name="GKJTPI2002:272-3"/> 
These events marked the end of "organized jihad in Algeria," according to one source (Gilles Kepel)<ref name="GKJTPI2002:272-3"/>

Although Zouabri was seldom heard of after this and the jihad exhausted, massacres "continued unabated" through 1998<ref name=GKJTPI2002:274>[[#GKJTPI2002|Kepel, ''Jihad'', 2002]]: p.274</ref> led by independent amirs with added "ingredients of vendetta and local dispute" to the putative jihad against the government.<ref name="GKJTPI2002:272-3"/>  Armed groups "that had formerly belonged to the GIA" continued to kill, some replacing jihad with simple banditry, others settling scores with the pro-government "patriots" or others, some enlisting themselves in the services of landowners and frightening illegal occupants off of property.<ref name="GKJTPI2002:274"/>

In 1999 the "Law on Civil Concord" granting amnesty to fighters was officially rejected by the GIA but accepted by many rank-and-file Islamist fighters; an estimated 85 percent surrendered their arms and returned to civilian life.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://web.stanford.edu/group/sjir/6.1.06_khatib.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325201541/https://web.stanford.edu/group/sjir/6.1.06_khatib.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 25, 2017|title=Spoiler Management During Algeria's Civil War: Explaining the Peace|last=Khatib|first=Sofiane|date=Winter 2005|website=web.stanford.edu|access-date=2017-03-18}}</ref>

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ([[Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb|GSPC]]) splinter faction appears to have eclipsed the GIA since approximately 1998 and is currently assessed by the [[CIA]] to be the most effective armed group remaining inside Algeria. Both the GIA and GSPC leadership continue to proclaim their rejection of President Bouteflika's amnesty, but in contrast to the GIA, the GSPC has stated that it avoids attacks on civilians.<ref name=":0"/>

Zouabri was himself killed in a gun battle with security forces 9 February 2002.<ref name="bbc-2-9-2002">{{cite news|last1=Saleh|first1=Heba|title=Antar Zouabri: A violent legacy|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1811194.stm|access-date=2 June 2015|agency=BBC News|date=9 February 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604065952/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1811194.stm|archive-date=2015-06-04|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Elpaís">{{cite news|url=https://elpais.com/diario/2002/02/10/internacional/1013295613_850215.html|title=Las fuerzas de seguridad argelinas matan al principal dirigente del Grupo Islámico Armado|work=El País (in Spanish)|date=9 February 2002 |accessdate=2021-12-13}}</ref> The GIA, torn by splits and desertions and denounced by all sides even in the Islamist movement, was slowly destroyed by army operations over the next few years; by the time of Antar Zouabri's death it was effectively incapacitated.<ref name="Elpaís"/>

===The GIA and violence===

In Algeria, the desire to have a violent and armed version of Islamism was not the primary mode of action for the GIA. The GIA did not see violence as a form of sacrifice or martyrdom, which is quite common in other Islamist groups. Rather, the GIA used violence as an instrument of change and a method for initiating a social transformation within Algeria. The state, in the eyes of the GIA, was an enemy of Islam and an incarnation of [[taghout]]. In order to destroy it, they would organize rural and urban guerrillas, overthrow the state through an insurgency, and create a new regime based on Sharia law.

In order to destabilize the state, the GIA instigated terror throughout the country, using acts of violence such as planned assassinations, vehicle bombings, and kidnappings. They often attacked members of the Algerian army and the police force. As time passed the GIA did not limit their violence to only state officials. They used violence as a means of social control on the civilian population as well. They would commit theatrical assassinations in front of large groups of people so they could spread fear and spur people into supporting their cause. Two notable assassinations by the GIA were the murders of [[Abdelkader Alloula]], a theater director in Algeria, and [[Cheb Hasni]], the most popular [[Raï]] music singer.

===Endgame===
In 1999, following the election of a new president, [[Abdelaziz Bouteflika]], a new law gave amnesty to most guerrillas, motivating large numbers to "repent" and return to normal life. The violence declined substantially after Antar Zouabri was  killed in 2002, Rachid Abou Tourab succeeded him and was allegedly killed by close aides in July 2004. He was replaced by Boulenouar Oukil. By 2004, GIA membership had dwindled, and they only had around 30 members left.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jazairy |first=Idriss |date=2004-01-01 |title=Terrorism: An Algerian Perspective |url=https://scholarship.richmond.edu/global/vol4/iss1/3 |journal=Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=11–20}}</ref> On 7 April 2005, the GIA was reported to have killed 14 civilians at a fake road block. Three weeks later on 29 April, Oukil was arrested.<ref name="Algeria's top GIA rebel captured">{{cite web|title=Algeria's top GIA rebel captured|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4500171.stm|work=[[BBC News]]|date=29 April 2005|access-date=14 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101062144/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4500171.stm|archive-date=2007-01-01|url-status=live}}</ref>  Nourredine Boudiafi was the last known "emir" of the GIA. He was arrested sometime in November 2004, his arrest was announced by the Algerian government in January 2005.<ref name="Algeria reveals rebel crackdown">{{cite web|title=Algeria reveals rebel crackdown|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4144265.stm|work=[[BBC News]]|date=4 January 2005|access-date=14 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219102634/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4144265.stm|archive-date=2008-12-19|url-status=live}}</ref>

A splinter group of the GIA that formed on the fringes of [[Kabylie]] (north central coast) in 1998, called the [[Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat]] (GSPC), rejected the amnesty. It dissociated itself from the previous indiscriminate killing of civilians and reverted to the classic MIA-AIS tactics of targeting combatant forces.<ref name="roberts-2003-269"/> This break away was led by [[Hassan Hattab]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islamist Terrorism and Democracy in the Middle East|last=Dalacoura|first=Katerina|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=9780521683791 |location=Cambridge University|pages=121}}</ref> In October 2003, they announced their support for [[Al-Qaeda]]<ref name="Whitlock A01"/><ref name="Algerian group backs al-Qaeda"/> and in 2006, [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] announced a "blessed union" between the two groups. In 2007, the group changed its name to [[Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb]]. It has focused on kidnapping for ransom as a means of raising funds and is estimated to have raised more than $50 million from 2003 to 2013.<ref>{{cite news|last=Corera|first=Gordon|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21018675|title=Islamists pose threat to French interests in Africa|publisher=BBC|date=14 January 2013|access-date=20 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119053138/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21018675|archive-date=2013-01-19|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Claims of Algerian Government involvement==
Various claims have been made that the GIA was heavily infiltrated at top level by agents of Algerian intelligence such as the [[Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité]] (DRS), who drove the organisation towards excessive violence against civilians in order to undermine its popular support.

According to Heba Saleh of [[BBC]] News,

<blockquote>Algerian opposition sources allege that the group may have been manipulated at times by elements within ruling military and intelligence circles. A series of massacres in the summer of 1997 - in which many hundreds of people were killed - took place near Algerian army barracks, but no-one came to the help of the victims.<ref name="bbc-2-9-2002"/></blockquote>

[[Fouad Ajami]] writing in ''[[The New Republic]]'' in 2010: called the GIA "a bastard child of the encounter between the Islamists and the security services of the regime."<ref name="Ajami-2010">{{cite magazine|last1=Ajami|first1=Fouad|title=The Furrows of Algeria|magazine=New Republic|date=January 27, 2010|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/the-furrows-algeria|access-date=4 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604184005/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/the-furrows-algeria|archive-date=2015-06-04|url-status=live}}</ref>   John Schindler in ''[[The National Interest]]'' stated, "Much of GIA's leadership consisted of DRS agents, who drove the group into the dead end of mass murder"<ref name="Schindler-2012">{{cite journal|last1=Schindler|first1=John R.|title=The Ugly Truth about Algeria|journal=The National Interest|date=July 10, 2012|url=http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-ugly-truth-about-algeria-7146?page=1|access-date=4 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604203050/http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-ugly-truth-about-algeria-7146?page=1|archive-date=2015-06-04|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another source, journalist [[Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed|Nafeez Ahmed]] claims that 'Yussuf-Joseph'—an anonymous 14-year "career secret agent" in Algeria's sécurité militaire who defected to Britain in 1997 and claims to have had access to "all the secret telexes"—told Ahmed that GIA atrocities were not the work of 'Islamic extremists', but were 'orchestrated' by 'Mohammed Mediane, head of the Algerian secret service', and 'General Smain Lamari', head of 'the counter intelligence agency' and ... 'In 1992 Smain created a special group, L'Escadron de la Mort (the Squadron of Death)... The death squads organized the massacres ... ' including 'at least' two of the bombs in Paris in summer 1995.<ref name=ourt>{{Citation|author=Nafeez Ahmed|title=Our terrorists|url=http://www.newint.org/features/2009/10/01/blowback-extended-version/|date=1 October 2009|publisher=New Internationalist Magazine|access-date=2011-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312033234/http://www.newint.org/features/2009/10/01/blowback-extended-version/|archive-date=2011-03-12|url-status=live}}</ref> That operation was (allegedly) 'run by Colonel Souames Mahmoud, alias Habib, head of the secret service at the Algerian embassy in Paris.' 
According to Ahmed, "Joseph's testimony has been corroborated by numerous defectors from the Algerian secret services."<ref>{{Citation|author=Nafeez Ahmed|title=The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism |publisher=Interlink
|location=New York|year=2005|pages=65–77}}</ref>  (Ahmed also claims that the "British intelligence believed the Algerian Government was involved in atrocities, contradicting the view the Government was claiming in public".<ref>{{Citation|author=Richard Norton-Taylor|title=Terrorist case collapses after three years|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/21/richardnortontaylor|date=21 March 2000|work=The Guardian|access-date=2016-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305021617/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/21/richardnortontaylor|archive-date=2017-03-05|url-status=live}}</ref>)

However, according to Andrew Whitley of [[Human Rights Watch]], "It was clear that armed Islamist groups were responsible for many of the killings of both civilians and security force members that had been attributed to them by the authorities.<ref name="hrw-1994">[https://books.google.com/books?id=cJQEXc7wRA8C&dq=%22did+not+represent+the+armed+wing+of+the+FIS%22+agence+france+presse&pg=PA54 Human Rights Abuses in Algeria: No One is Spared]  By Andrew Whitley, [[Human Rights Watch]], 1994, p.54</ref>  According to ''the Shadow Report on Algeria'', Algerians such as Zazi Sadou, have collected testimonies by survivors that their attackers were unmasked and were recognised as local radicals - in one case even an elected member of the FIS.<ref name=wluml>[http://www.wluml.org/sites/wluml.org/files/import/english/pubs/pdf/misc/shadow-report-algeria-eng.pdf ''Shadow Report on Algeria, To The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women'', Submitted by: International Women’s Human Rights Law Clinic and Women Living Under Muslim Laws| January, 1999] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032701/http://www.wluml.org/sites/wluml.org/files/import/english/pubs/pdf/misc/shadow-report-algeria-eng.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}| p. 20. note 27: "Some fundamentalist leaders have attempted to distance themselves from these massacres and claimed that the State was behind them or that they were the work of the State-armed self-defense groups. Some human rights groups have echoed this claim to some extent. Inside Algeria, and particularly among survivors of the communities attacked, the view is sharply different. In many cases, survivors have identified their attackers as the assailants enter the villages unmasked and are often from the locality. In one case, a survivor identified a former elected FIS officials as one of the perpetrators of a massacre. Testimonies Collected by Zazi Sadou."</ref>

According to [[Max Abrahms]], "the false flag allegation arose because the civilian attacks hurt the GIA—not because of any evidence" to support it. Abrahms describes the proliferation of [[false flag]] conspiracy theories, such as [[9/11 conspiracy theories]], as a commonplace reaction to the generally counterproductive effects of terrorist violence, but notes that it is a fallacy to assume that the perpetrators and beneficiaries of terrorism must be the same. Abrahms cites Mohammed Hafez, an academic expert on the subject who concluded: "The evidence does not support the claim that security forces were the principal culprits behind the massacres, or even willing conspirators in the barbaric violence against civilians. Instead, the evidence points to the GIA as the principal perpetrator of the massacres."<ref>{{cite book|last=Abrahms|first=Max|title=Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2018|isbn=9780192539441|pages=80–81}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Martyrs of Atlas|Atlas Trappist Monks]]
*[[Abdelkader Mokhtari]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Colin Robinson, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080514054900/http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/gia_020503-pr.cfm In the Spotlight: the Armed Islamic Group], [[Center for Defense Information]], 5 February 2003
* Derradji Abder-Rahmane, Concise History of Political Violence in Algeria: Brothers in Faith Enemies in Amrs, Volume no.1 the Edwin Mellen Press, NY, USA, September 2002.
* Derradji Abder-Rahmane, Concise History of Political Violence in Algeria: Brothers in Faith Enemies in Amrs, Volume no.2 the Edwin Mellen Press, NY, USA, November 2002.
* [https://archive.org/stream/Algeria_GIA_magazine_september1996/gia_algeria_aljamaa_magazine_arabic_september_1996#page/n6/mode/2up GIA Magazine November 1991]
* {{cite book|last1=Kepel|first1=Gilles|title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam|url=https://archive.org/details/jihad00gill_0 |url-access=registration|quote=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam.|date=2002|publisher=Harvard University Press.|isbn=9780674008779 |ref=GKJTPI2002}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20030804062541/http://www.terrorismanswers.com/groups/gia.html Armed Islamic Group] ([[Council on Foreign Relations]])
*[http://mondediplo.com/1999/03/03algeria Algeria accepts the unacceptable] ([[Le Monde Diplomatique]])
*[https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,1564933,00.html Who Really Bombed Paris by Naima Bouteldja] ([[The Guardian]])
*[http://www.athenaintelligence.org/index2.html Athena Intelligence] Advanced Research Network on Insurgency and Terrorism

{{Militant Islamism in the Middle East}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Armed Islamic Group of Algeria| ]]
[[Category:1990s in Algeria]]
[[Category:Algeria–France military relations]]
[[Category:Factions of the Algerian Civil War]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorism in France]]
[[Category:Jihadist groups in Algeria]]
[[Category:Organisations designated as terrorist by the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Africa designated as terrorist]]
[[Category:Qutbist organisations]]
[[Category:Organizations formerly designated as terrorist by Canada]]
[[Category:Organizations formerly designated as terrorist by the United States]]
[[Category:Rebel groups in Algeria]]
[[Category:Wahhabi militant groups]]