Armed Islamic Group of Algeria

Armed Islamic Group الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah al-Musallaha
Dates of operation	1993–2004
Motives	The creation of an Islamic state in Algeria.
Active region(s)	Algeria, France
Ideology	Takfir wal-Hijra, Islamism
Major actions	Assassinations, Massacres, Bombings, Aircraft hijackings
Notable attacks	Tahar Djaout assassination, Djillali Liabes assassination, Cheb Hasni assassination, 1994 Air France Flight 8969 hijacking, 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings

The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, from French: Groupe Islamique Armé; Arabic: الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة‎‎, al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah al-Musallaha) was one of the two main Islamist insurgents groups that fought the Algerian government and army in the Algerian Civil War. It was created from smaller armed groups following the 1992 military coup and arrest and internment of thousands of officials in the Islamist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party after that party won the first round of parliamentary elections in December 1991. It was led by a succession of amirs (commanders) who were killed or arrested one after another.

Unlike the other main armed groups, the MIA and later the AIS, in its pursuit of an Islamic state the GIA sought not to pressure the government into concessions but to destabilise and overthrow it, to "purge the land of the ungodly". Its slogan inscribed on all communiques was: "no agreement, no truce, no dialogue". The group desired to create "an atmosphere of general insecurity" and employed kidnapping, assassination, and bombings, including car bombs and targeted not only security forces but civilians.

Between 1992 and 1998, the GIA conducted a violent campaign of civilian massacres, sometimes wiping out entire villages in its area of operation, (notably the Bentalha and Rais). It attacked and killed other Islamists that left the GIA or attempted to negotiate with the government. It also targeted foreign civilians living in Algeria, killing more than 100 expatriate men and women in the country. The group established a presence outside Algeria, in France, Belgium, Britain, Italy and the United States, and launched terror attacks in France in late 1994.

The "undisputed principal Islamist force" in Algeria in 1994, by 1996, militants were deserting "in droves", alienated by its execution of civilians and Islamists leaders. In 1999, a government amnesty law motivated large numbers of jihadis to "repent". The remnants of the GIA proper were hunted down over the next two years, leaving a splinter group the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which announced its support for Al-Qaeda in October 2003.

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