SUMMARY
GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé, Armed Islamic Group), also known as Al-Jamaah al-Islamiyah al-Musallah, was an Algerian rebel group. GIA emerged in 1992, in the turmoil following the outlawing of the Islamic party FIS (Front islamique du salut, Islamic Salvation Front) after its victory in the parliamentary elections. GIA was founded by Mansouri Miliani, a former member of another Algerian rebel group, MIA (Mouvement islamique algérien; Armed Islamique Movement).
The Sunni-Islamic group engaged in an intra-state conflict with the Algerian government in 1993. It rejected democracy and political pluralism and wanted to install an Islamic state based on sharia Law in Algeria. Initially only targeting the “impious” state institutions, GIA from 1993-1994 increasingly focused on re-Islamising the whole society according to the strictest variants of the Salafist dogma. Its long-term objective became the establishment of a world-wide theocracy.
Iran gave at least some arms and material aid to GIA in the early 1990s. Sudan supplied GIA with arms in the late 1990s and the Algerian authorities accused Morocco, Libya, Syria and Sudan of harbouring GIA rebels on their territory. There have also been reports of links to Al Qaeda, which allegedly financed a training ground for GIA fighters in southern Sudan according to the Algerian government.
GIA was dominated by the so-called ‘Algerian Afghans’ – Algerians, who had returned from Afghanistan, where they had joint the Muslim rebel groups that fought the Soviet-backed Afghan government in the 1980s. The Al-Hijra wal-Takfir (Exile and Redemption) grouping, fighting the Algerian government in 1991, joined GIA and in 1994 large parts of MIA Mouvement islamique armé, Armed Islamique Movement) and two key elements of the former FIS leadership rallied to the GIA, namely Mohamed Saïds Jazara faction and Saïd Makhloufis faction. In 1997, a nation-wide ceasefire was declared by the rival Algerian rebel group AIS (Armée Islamique du Salut, Islamique Salvation Army) and some of the GIA factions laid down their weapons leading to the partial disintegration of GIA. In September 1998, the GIA commander in the Boumerdès region, Hassan Hattab, broke away to establish GSPC (Groupe Salafite pour la prédication et le combat, Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) in 1998.
The founder of GIA, Miliani was arrested in 1992. During the subsequent two years, several leaders dominated GIA successively for shorter periods: Moh Leveilly, Abdelhak Layada, Mourad Sid Ahmed alias Djaafar El Afghani and Ahmed Abu Abdullah alias Sherif Ghousmi. Mourad Sid Ahmed and Ahmed Abu Abdullah were both killed in 1994. In late 1994, Djamel Zitouni became head of the GIA. Under his leadership, internal strife led to the formation of semi-autonomous groups each controlled by local leaders. In 1996, he was killed by a rival faction. Antar Zouabri led what remained of GIA until 2002 when he was killed by government forces. Subsequently the GIA members, numbering only about 100, dispersed mainly in the Algiers hinterland. Zouabri’s replacement was reportedly Rachid Abou Tourab (real name Rachid Oukali), killed in 2004. According to the Algerian authorities, the last national GIA leader Nourredine Boudiafi was arrested in 2006. Several analysts argue that the whole organisation has become inactive due to the killings of its leaders and the imprisonment of many of its members.
It has been alleged that the Algerian Secret Service (Securité militaire) infiltrated GIA and manipulated Zitouni, GIA leader from 1994 to 1996, and other GIA members.
GIA has been involved in the intra-state, non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
