SUMMARY
Signed-in-Blood Battalion (alternatively Those Who Sign with Blood or Signatories for Blood) was an Islamist rebel group active mainly in the Sahel region of southern Algeria and northern Mali. While the group was launched in early December 2012, its roots can be traced back to mid-October of that year, when Mokhtar Belmokhtar (also known as Khaled Abou El Abbas or Laaouar, and nicknamed Mr. Marlboro and The One-Eyed) announced that he had broken away with his Battalion of the Veiled from the Algerian rebel group AQIM.
A former commander in AQIM, Belmokhtar had a long history in the Algerian intrastate conflict. Having returned from training and fighting in Afghanistan, Belmokhtar joined the Islamist rebel group GIA (Groupe Islamique Armeé: Armed Islamic Group), and later chose to follow those splintering off from GIA, creating GPSC (Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat: Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat), renamed AQIM in 2007. In 2003 then-GSPC pledged its allegiance to al-Qaida and around the same time it retreated to two strongholds, the Berber-inhabited Kabylia region in north-eastern Algeria and the Sahel region to the south, prompting questions concerning the cohesion of the group. Based in the south, Belmokhtar quickly rose in prominence and started to gain an interest in smuggling and other illicit trafficking (hence the name Mr. Marlboro), causing money to flow into the movement. When GSPC changed its name to AQIM Belmokhtar became the head of his own brigade, the Battalion of the Veiled, which operated more or less independently, primarily in southern Algeria and northern Mali, but also in Mauretania.
There was a history of rivalry and power struggle within the AQIM leadership in general and among the commanders in the Sahel region in particular. During the second half of 2012 this power struggle came to a head. Passed over for the position of Saharan emir, and at loggerheads with three AQIM leaders – AQIM's overall emir Abdelmalek Droukdel, based in Kabylia region, Yahya Abou el-Hammam, who won the power struggle and was appointed Saharan emir and Katibat Tariq Ibn Ziad commander Abou Zeid – the relationship between Belmokhtar and the leadership broke down. Reports differ as to whether Belmokhtar subsequently decided to break away from the movement, or if he was in fact suspended. Nevertheless, it seems clear that he from mid-October 2012 became a player, independent of AQIM. Bringing with him a majority of his fighters from the Battalion of the Veiled, Belmokhtar in early December launched his new movement, the Signed-in-Blood Battalion.
The objectives of the new movement were not entirely clear, with statements ranging from concerning only northern Mali, to the entire globe. In December 2012 Belmokhtar elaborated on the group’s goals, saying that it aimed to consolidate shariah in northern Mali. He also threatened to attack Algeria and France and called on Mauritanian imams to come to the aid of the “Azawad,” which is the term mainly used by Tuareg separatist for northern Mali. A close associate of Belmokhtar, Oumar Ould Hamaha, later broadened the goal, stating that Belmoktar wanted to create a pan-Saharan movement, and that AQIM was too narrowly focused on countries in the Maghreb, or North Africa. The aim of the movement was broadened yet again when France commenced their intervention in Mali in January 2013 and Oumar Ould Hamaha stated that the group’s jihad would go global.
While Signed-in-Blood Battalion broke off from AQIM, the group’s leadership was clear on the fact that it continued to be associated with al-Qaida central, stating that it was even taking orders from the latter. It is unclear how close the collaboration was, however. Belmokhtar’s group was also reported to be working alongside fellow Islamist rebel group MUJAO, especially in Gao and Khalil towns in Mali.
In August 2013, Signed-in-Blood Battalion merged with MUJAO, creating al-Murabitun. With that, Signed-in-Blood Battalion ceased to be recorded as an independent actor in UCDP data.
