Armed Islamic Group

The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, aka al Jama'ah al Islamiyah al Musallah; GIA; Groupement Islamique Arme) 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 (FIS), Algeria's largest opposition party, appeared certain to win. More than 100,000 people were 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. The GIA wiped out entire villages during its campaign of civilian [Page 62]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 Air France Flight 8969 to Algiers. Two years later, GIA operatives claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in Paris and Lyon, 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, located south of Algiers. More than two months later, Moroccan radio broadcast a communiqué said to be from the GIA, stating, “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 Abdelaziz 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. In February 2002, Algerian security forces assaulted a GIA hideout and killed Zouabri. Algerian authorities had declared Zouabri dead many times before, but this report appears to be accurate. Since then, GIA leadership has only stayed in place for a short time before being arrested or killed by Algerian police. For example, one GIA leader, Boulenouar Oukil, was arrested in April 2005 after GIA ambushed and killed 14 civilians at a fake roadblock outside Algiers.

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a splinter faction of GIA thought to be aligned with al Qaeda, largely eclipsed its parent organization. Assessments by the U.S. State Department call the GSPC the most effective remaining armed group inside Algeria. The group rechristened itself as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, emphasizing its supposed ties with Osama bin Laden's organization. The GIA, meanwhile, seems to have been largely broken up, due to the intense efforts of the Algerian army. As of 2005, the Algerian government reported that there were fewer than 800 terrorists active in the country. Yet another GIA leader, Rachid Abou Tourab, was arrested in 2008.

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