Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

44 • ARMED ISLAMIC GROUPFront (FIS) in the second round of national elections scheduled for16 January 1992, the Islamic fundamentalists became divided overhow to deal with the military takeover that had blocked their almostcertain democratic ascent to power.While many moderate fundamentalists favored conciliation anddialogue, most of the FIS leaders favored confrontation. The IslamicSalvation Army (AIS) emerged from FIS cells that armed themselvesto confront the regime violently. However, this appears to have been inresponse to the emergence of the Armed Islamic Group, whose memberswere actually more radical Islamic extremists who had deridedthe electoral approach favored by the FIS. The GIA believed violentconfrontation was inevitable and that armed jihad was the proper wayto establish an Islamic state in Algeria. Most of the GIA members were“Afghans,” that is, Islamic militants who had volunteered to fight withthe Mujahideen of Afghanistan against the Soviet occupiers. Many ofthem were deeply influenced by their Iranian and Sudanese supporters,who favored Islamic revolution and terrorism as means to establish anIslamic state. On 29 June 1992 President Boudiaf was assassinated byone of his own guards, who appeared to have pro-Islamist sympathies.The army generals began repression of the FIS, and the GIA cellswent into action, beginning with primitive black powder bombs butprogressing to the use of car bombs by late 1992.The GIA sought to bring down the Algerian regime not simplythrough internal attacks on the government, its troops, and its supportersbut also by trying to bring international pressure on the regime.With the support of Iran and Sudan, the GIA embarked on foursuccessive strategies during 1992–1996 to pressure France and otherWestern governments to withhold material and moral support fromthe Algerian regime and to force the Algerian state to accommodatethem in some externally imposed settlement in their favor. First, inAugust 1992, they bombed Hoari Boumedienne International Airport,near the Air France ticket counter, killing 12 and injuring 128.This was meant to warn foreign travelers away from visiting Algeriaand it also had the effect of making Algerians examine the socialprogram of the FIS more closely and critically.The second strategy was initiated in May 1993, when the GIAbegan targeting foreign or local journalists for assassination. By theend of 1995, more than 50 journalists had been murdered and oftenmutilated.