SUMMARY
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was an Uzbek rebel group fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state in Uzbekistan. However, its operations have not only taken place in Uzbekistan, but in the whole region of Central Asia. IMU has also been fighting together with various rebel groups in other countries. Another name sometimes used for the group is the Islamic Party of Turkestan. Around 2001, IMU stated that it intend to create an Islamic state not only in Uzbekistan, but in several neighboring countries as well.
IMU was officially formed in 1998 by Tahir Yuldashev and Juma Namangani, but the group was originally created in the beginning of the 1990s when Yuldashev and Namangani formed its predecessor; an Islamic movement called Adolat. Adolat had strong support in the Fergana Valley in eastern Uzbekistan, the home of both Yuldashev and Namangani. In 1992 Adolat was declared illegal and the leaders fled to the neighboring country of Tajikistan to join the opposition in the Tajik armed conflict.
When the armed conflict in Tajikistan ended in 1997, Yuldashev and Namangani moved on to Afghanistan and joined the Taliban movement there. In 1998 they formed IMU and declared jihad against the Uzbek government, and in February 1999 they initiated the Uzbek conflict when they carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the countrys President, Islam Karimov. The two year long conflict in Uzbekistan was fought as much in the neighboring countries as in Uzbekistan itself. The IMU had bases in Tajikistan, and several clashes took place between IMU and the Kyrgyz army on Kyrgyz territory. In October 2000, IMU retreated to its bases in Afghanistan and started fighting alongside the Taliban movement again.
During the armed conflict in Uzbekistan, IMU maintained its bases in Afghanistan. However, when the US and UK invaded Afghanistan in 2001, IMU was largely decimated, and the remnants of the group fled to Pakistan. IMU was mainly made up by Uzbeks but also included Kyrgyz, Tajik, Kazak, Uighur, Chechen, and Pakistani fighters. Unconfirmed allegations suggest that al-Qaeda have been providing funds for the IMU.
The leadership was divided between Yuldashev and Namangani, with Yuldashev being the ideological, spiritual leader and Namangani the military commander. When Namangani died during an American air strike in Afghanistan in 2001, Yuldashev headed IMU by himself until he was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in 2009. His successor Usman Adil was also killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan three years later. Usman Ghazi was appointed new leader of the group, a position he held until 2015 when he was killed in Afghanistan during clashes between his allies loyal to Mullah Mansour and the the Taleban. In August 2015, most IMU fighters joined the newly announced Islamic State – Khorasan Province and the group ceased to exist.
IMU has been involved in the intrastate and non-state categories of UCDP organised violence.
