Armed Islamic Group

aka Groupement Islamique Arme, AIG, Al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah al-Musallah

The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is an extremist Islamic organization bent on overthrowing Algeria's military-backed regime and creating an Islamic state. The Algerian government has accused Iran and Sudan of supporting the GIA and other Algerian extremist groups.

The GIA began a terror campaign in 1992 after the Algerian Army declared a state of emergency and blocked an election that the Islamic Salvation Front, Algeria's largest opposition party, appeared certain to win. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the civil conflict that followed.

The GIA (the French acronym for Groupement Islamique Arme) has carried out scores of attacks against civilians—targeting journalists, foreign residents, and government workers. Sometimes the GIA wiped out entire villages during its campaign of civilian massacres. The group uses tactics such as assassinations and car bombings and is known for kidnapping victims and slitting their throats. However, international analysts have cautioned that the GIA may have been manipulated and infiltrated by the Algerian military and that some attacks attributed to the group may not be its responsibility.

In 1993, the GIA announced a campaign against foreigners living in Algeria. Group operatives have since killed more than 100 foreign nationals—both men and women. In December 1994, GIA members hijacked an Air France flight to Algiers. Two years later, GIA operatives claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in Paris and Lyons, France, that killed 12 and wounded more than 200. Several GIA members were later convicted in France of the attacks.

During the spring of 1996, seven monks were kidnapped from the Our Lady of the Atlas monastery south of Algiers. More than two months later, Moroccan radio broadcast a communiqué said to be from the GIA: “We have cut the throats of the seven monks.” Later press reports noted evidence that the Algerian military may have been involved—perhaps in an attempt to sabotage negotiations between the French government and Islamic militants.

When President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika came to power in Algeria in 1999, he offered an amnesty to Algerian militants who were not directly implicated in murder. Thousands of fighters surrendered their weapons, but violence continued to wrack the country. GIA leader Antar Zouabri called on GIA members to reject the offer of amnesty.

The Salafi Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), a less extreme splinter faction of GIA, eclipsed its parent organization around 1998. A recent U.S. State Department assessment called the GSPC the most effective remaining armed group inside Algeria. The GSPC has stated that it targets the military, not civilians. Press reports have linked both the GSPC and GIA with Saudi Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

In February 2002, Algerian security forces assaulted a GIA hideout and killed Zouabri. Algerian authorities had declared Zouabri dead many times before; however, this report appears to be accurate.