SUMMARY

GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé, Armed Islamic Group) formed in Algeria in 1992. It used one-sided violence as part of the intra-state conflict against the Government of Algeriaand its effort to impose “correct” Islam on the Algerian population.

GIA expanded the concept of takfir to embrace elements of society, not merely the ‘impious state’: Djamel Zitouni, who became GIA leader in 1994, stated in late 1995 that the whole of Algerian society “had left Islam”, GIA justified violence against civilians as “battle against the infidel” and a GIA Islamic scholar stated in 1997 that it was permitted to kill women and children in contact with “the enemies of Islam”. Accordingly GIA also targeted persons that were loyal to the Islamist cause but rejected GIA's extremism. For example, in areas under its control, GIA punished with death those civilians who defied its injunctions with respect to behavior and dress such as Muslim women who refused to wear veils.

Apart from attacks launched on religious grounds, analysts argue that GIA used one-sided violence to demoralize, intimidate and subjugate their opponents or as retaliation upon communities for having withdrawn support. In numerous cases GIA members looted villages and some attacks became hardly distinguishable from banditry.

Many of the victims of one-sided violence were ordinary people in rural areas. Journalists, intellectuals and secular schools were also common targets. GIA committed a number of massacres in villages and townships, planted bombs in public places, and killed travelers at roadblocks. In its early years, GIA mainly targeted non-Muslim foreigners. The attacks were mainly located in Northern Algeria.

It should be noted that among others exiled ex-officers in the Algerian army reported that GIA was infiltrated by the Algerian Secret Service that had an interest in discrediting the Islamists and maintaining a climate of terror that would prevent any revolt. According to several reports government forces did not attempt to prevent major one-sided attacks and subsequent looting by GIA. However, it is unclear to what degree the army was responsible for the massacres committed by GIA.

GIA first became active as a one-sided actor in the UCDP datasets in 1993, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 14 December that year when GIA rebels knifed to death 12 Croatians and Bosnians working on a construction project in Tamesguida village, about 60 km from Algiers.