Islamic Jihad Organization

Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO)
Participant in Lebanese civil war (1975-1990)
Active	Early 1983 Until 1992
Leaders	Imad Mughniyah
Headquarters	Beirut, Baalbek
Strength	200 fighters
Allies	Iranian Revolutionary Guards Hezbollah under Subhi al-Tufayli Amal Movement
Opponents	Israel Defense Forces (IDF) South Lebanon Army (SLA) Syrian Army Internal Security Forces (ISF) Amal Movement Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF)

The Islamic Jihad Organization – IJO (Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي‎‎, Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami) or Organisation du Jihad Islamique (OJI) in French, but best known as "Islamic Jihad" (Arabic: Jihad al-Islami) for short, was a Shia Islamist militia known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War. They demanded the departure of all Americans from Lebanon and took responsibility for a number of kidnappings, assassinations, and bombings of embassies and peacekeeping troops which killed several hundred people. Their deadliest attacks were in 1983, when they carried out bombing of the barracks of French and U.S. MNF peacekeeping troops, and of the United States embassy in Beirut.

Possibly formed in early 1983 and reportedly led by Imad Mughniyah, a former Lebanese Shiite member of Palestinian Fatah’s Force 17, the IJO was not a militia but rather a typical underground urban guerrilla organization. Based at Baalbek in the Beqaa valley, the group aligned 200 Lebanese Shiite militants financed by Iran and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ contingent previously sent by Ayatollah Khomeini to fight the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

However, senior Iranian officials denied the alleged connections. For instance, Mehdi Karroubi claimed that Iran had not been related to the group, stating "Because like you, we learn about their existence or nonexistence through the mass media and our information about them is as much as yours."

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