Armed Islamic Front

The Armed Islamic Front (aka Algerian Jihad Islamic Front) is the military wing of Algeria's largest opposition party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). In January 1992, the Algerian military cancelled a second round of elections that the banned FIS was likely to win; in response, the Armed Islamic Front began a campaign of terror. Members of the Armed Islamic Front and other Islamic militant groups first carried out bombings and killings targeting government institutions and security forces, but the violence soon spilled over into attacks on civilians, foreigners, journalists, and intellectuals. More than 100,000 people were killed in these attacks.

As civil order in Algeria continued to disintegrate, the Islamic opposition splintered into a confusing array of groups. The Armed Islamic Front is generally considered to be the same group as the Jihad Armed Islamic Front, or Armed Islamic Front for the Jihad. The international press also sometimes refers to the Armed Islamic Front with the Islamic Salvation Front's acronym FIS. The Front, said to be slightly more moderate than the radical and better-known Armed Islamic Group (GIA), gained a reputation for targeting intellectuals and public figures.

Most of the massacres and car bombings in Algeria's bloody conflict have been attributed to GIA, the most extreme Islamic organization. GIA has become known for kidnapping victims and slitting their throats. However, international analysts have raised the possibility of Algerian military infiltration of such groups, and the military may therefore be responsible for many of the deaths.

When a deadly car bomb exploded at the press headquarters in the capital city of Algiers on February 11, 1996, killing 21 people, including two journalists and a chief editor of Soir d'Algerie, authorities at first suspected the GIA; however, the Armed Islamic Front was later shown to be the perpetrator.

In March 1997, Algerian security forces killed Armed Islamic Front leader Abdelkadur Seddouki. During the same week, security forces assassinated the prominent GIA member Yihad Riane in his apartment. The international press reported that the killings were part of a government campaign to crack down on militants before local elections. In September 1997, the Armed Islamic Front publicly urged Islamic militants to honor a truce proposed by the government. However, according to press reports, during the very weekend that the Front called for peace, members of the GIA killed at least 30 civilians.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika became president of Algeria in 1999 and offered an amnesty to Algerian militants not directly implicated in rape or murder. In response, thousands of fighters, including many Armed Islamic Front members, laid down their weapons.