Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

322 • ISLAMIC SALVATION FRONT1997 it called for a truce beginning 1 October. By 6 June 1999 the headof the AIS, Madani Mezrag, announced that the group was renouncingarmed struggle against the Algerian government. Although the rivalGIA continued fighting, the AIS cease-fire essentially marked the beginningof the winding-down phase of the Algerian civil conflict thathas claimed over 140,000 lives since 1992 but which has not ended entirely.The AIS is now considered to be an inactive insurgent group.ISLAMIC SALVATION FRONT (FIS). The al-Jabhah al-Islamiyahlil-Inqadh, known better by its French name, the Front Islamiquedu Salut, is a nonstate Islamic fundamentalist group that sought tocreate an Islamic regime in Algeria under which both religious andpolitical affairs would be governed by the Shari’ah, that is, the Islamiclaw. It was the main underground Islamic fundamentalist partyin Algeria at the time the National Liberation Front (FLN) tooksteps toward democratization in 1989. Under Algeria’s new nationalconstitution, adopted on 23 February 1989, multiparty provincialand municipal elections were held on 12 June 1990, the first freelycontested elections since Algerian independence. The FIS, led byAbbassi Madani, was the first new political party to be formed underthe new electoral law and gained majorities in 32 of the 48 provincialgovernments and in 853 of the 1,539 municipalities. In the first roundof parliamentary elections held on 26 December 1991, the FIS won188 of 231 races, although 199 seats required runoff elections.Concerned over the apparent ascendance of the fundamentalists,secular nationalists within the government and armed forces stagedan internal coup on 11 January 1992, forcing the resignation of PresidentChadhli Benjedid. The five-member High State Council formedto govern the country canceled the runoff parliamentary elections andoutlawed the FIS. Shortly afterward, Algerian President MuhammadBoudiaf, who had headed the five-member junta that had assumedpower, was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards, and on 29June 1992 an Islamic fundamentalist insurgent group, the ArmedIslamic Group (GIA), went into action. The Algerian governmentdeclared a 12-month state of emergency and proceeded with a crackdownon the FIS, arresting over 7,000 supporters and killing about270 before the end of 1992. In fact, the GIA was formed by moreextreme militants who had opposed the electoral strategy of the FISand who had prepared in any case for armed insurrection.