Al-Qaida in Iraq
| Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia) |
|
|---|---|
| Participant in the Iraq War | |
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One of the flags used by AQI in their video releases. Variants used white text for the circle and the shahada.
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| Active | 17 October 2004–January 15, 2006 |
| Ideology | Sunni Islam |
| Leaders |
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (KIA) Abu Ayyub al-Masri (KIA) |
| Headquarters | Fallujah |
| Area of operations | Iraq |
| Part of |
 al-Qaeda
|
| Originated as |
 Ansar al-Islam (associate) |
| Became |
Mujahideen Shura Council Islamic State of Iraq
|
| Opponents |
 Multinational force in Iraq Iraq (Iraqi security forces, Kurdish and Shia militias) Jordan United Nations
|
| Battles and wars |
Iraqi insurgency (2003–06) Civil war in Iraq (2006–07) |
Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (TQJBR; ("Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia", Arabic: تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين, translit. tanẓīm qā‘idat al-jihād fī bilād ar-rāfidayn), also referred to as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) or Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, was an Iraqi Sunni Islamic Jihadist organization affiliated with al-Qaeda. It was a major combatant actor in the Iraqi insurgency and played a central role in the establishment of the Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq, now part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The group was founded by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999 under the name Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Arabic: جماعة التوحيد والجهاد, "Group of Monotheism and Jihad").
The group is believed to have started bomb attacks in Iraq as of August 2003, five months after the coalition invasion and occupation of Iraq, targeting UN representatives, Iraqi Shiite institutions, the Jordanian embassy, provisional Iraqi government institutions.
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