Armed Islamic Group of Algeria

The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, from French: Groupe Islamique Armé; Arabic: الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة, romanized: al-Jamāʿa al-ʾIslāmiyya al-Musallaḥa) was one of the two main Islamist insurgent 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 the arrest and internment of thousands of officials in the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party after it 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 Islamic Armed Movement (MIA) and the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), the GIA sought not to bargain with the government, but to overthrow it and "purge the land of the ungodly" in its pursuit of an Islamic state. The slogan inscribed on all its communiques was: "no agreement, no truce, no dialogue". GIA's ideology was inspired by the Jihadist writings of the Egyptian Islamist scholar Sayyid Qutb.

The group desired to create "an atmosphere of general insecurity" and employed kidnapping, assassination, and bombings, including car bombs, and targeted security forces and 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 in Bentalha and Rais). It attacked and killed other Islamists who had 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.

The group also established a presence in France, Belgium, Britain, Italy, and the United States. It launched terror attacks in France in 1994 and 1995. While it was the "undisputed principal Islamist force" in Algeria in 1994, militants were deserting "in droves" by 1996, alienated by its execution of civilians and Islamist 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. The extent to which the group was infiltrated and manipulated by Algerian security services is disputed.

The GIA is considered a terrorist organisation by the governments of Algeria, France, the United States, Argentina, Bahrain, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations. The GIA remains a Proscribed Organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000. Canada listed GIA as a terrorist entity until 18 June 2024.