Al Jihad

aka Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian al-Jihad, Islamic Jihad, Jihad Group, New Jihad

The Egyptian Islamic extremist group Al Jihad is said to maintain close ties with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Although exact numbers are unknown, the organization is believed to have several hundred committed members. Active since the 1970s, the militant organization's goal is to overthrow the [Page 15]secular Egyptian government and replace it with an Islamic state. Al Jihad members assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

Al Jihad developed into a powerful force in the 1980s, specializing in armed attacks against high-level members of the Egyptian government. During a military parade in November 1981, members disguised themselves as soldiers; after surrounding Sadat, they shot and killed him in front of Egyptian television cameras.

Al Jihad also claimed responsibility for the foiled assassination attempts on Interior Minister Hassan al-Alfi in August 1993 and Prime Minister Atef Sedky in November 1993. Unlike the Egyptian extremist group Gama'a al Islamiyya, Al Jihad has never targeted foreign tourists in Egypt.

As a consequence of these attacks, Egyptian security forces began to crack down on fundamentalists. Despite international protests, officials held suspects without trial and used torture during interrogation. In response, many Al Jihad members fled the country.

According to the U.S. State Department, Al Jihad has not carried out an attack inside Egypt since 1993, preferring to work outside that country. In 1995, Al Jihad bombed the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 17. Three years later, the group planned an attack, which was foiled, against the U.S. embassy in Albania.

During the 1990s, Al Jihad divided into two factions: the first and perhaps less notorious faction is led by Abbud al-Aumar, an original Jihad leader currently imprisoned in Egypt; the second is led by Egyptian physician Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's close adviser. One of Al Jihad's founding members, al-Zawahiri met bin Laden during the Afghan guerrilla war against the Soviet Union. Al-Zawahiri is said to have influenced the Al Qaeda network's growing anti-Americanism and is suspected of having been instrumental in planning the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

Al Jihad and Al Qaeda announced a merger in 1998, saying that they had formed the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. After al-Zawahiri merged his faction of Al Jihad with Al Qaeda, many of his members became known as bin Laden's foot soldiers. Egyptian authorities have accused Al Jihad members of providing tactical support to Al Qaeda—for example, forging documents and transferring money.

Worldwide, many Al Jihad operatives have been arrested—most recently in Lebanon and Yemen. In 1999, Egyptian courts conducted a large-scale trial of 107 terror suspects, largely Al Jihad members. According to the U.S. State Department, Al Jihad's exact strength is unknown, but it is likely to have several hundred hard-core members.