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1 - Algeria

The GIA from Incorporation to Tyranny

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2020

Alexander Thurston
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
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Summary

This chapter tells the story of shifting jihadist coalitions within Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) initially built a broad coalition comprising veterans of Afghanistan, veterans of an earlier domestic Algerian insurgency, local hardliners, and other armed groups that the GIA drew in. Yet at the peak of coalition-building, the death of a unifying figure set the stage for bitter infighting as the local hardliners began to exclude and even kill the leaders of other coalition blocs. Eventually, the GIA fragmented along ideological but also geographical lines, with regional field commanders revolting against the clique of leaders from Algiers and nearby Blida. The GIA splinter organization the Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (French acronym GSPC) represented the reaction of field commanders, who wished to move away from internal purges and civilian massacres and back to fighting the Algerian state.

Type
Chapter
Information
Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel
Local Politics and Rebel Groups
, pp. 27 - 62
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Algeria
  • Alexander Thurston, University of Cincinnati
  • Book: Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel
  • Online publication: 15 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108771160.002
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Algeria
  • Alexander Thurston, University of Cincinnati
  • Book: Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel
  • Online publication: 15 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108771160.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Algeria
  • Alexander Thurston, University of Cincinnati
  • Book: Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel
  • Online publication: 15 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108771160.002
Available formats
×