Algeria - Armed Islamic Group, Groupe Islamic Armee, el-Djama'a el-islamia el Mosalaha (GIA)

The GIA, numbering between 20,000 and 25,000 fighters are organized into tiny, unrelated and sometimes warring divisions. Some say their headquarters is in the Hatatba Mountains 50 miles south of Algiers. At its core are some of the most heartless and cruel men on earth: Algerian veterans of the Afghan war, or mujahedin. They're hard, brutal religious zealots trained in Sudan, battle-tested in Afghanistan and bankrolled by Iran.

Formed by Djamel Zitouni, alias Abou Aberrahmane Amine, the GIA split away from the FIS, disagreeing violently with its softer position. Zitouni was killed on July 16, 1996, during infighting that led to the split of the GIA into three factions. The "mainstream" GIA is now led by Miloud Hebbi or Slimane Mehrezi, depending on who you talk to. The faction that followed Zitouni is led by Antar Zouarbri (aka Abu Talha), and is considered one of the most brutal. It was rumored he was killed in a July '97 shootout with the army, but Zouarbi apparently rose from the dead to continue severing jugulars. It probably doesn't matter since the GIA has lost at least 12 leaders and/or commanders in five years. Realistically, no one knows the actual structure or leadership of this phantom organization.

One thing for sure, its most dreaded unit is called the Phalanx of Death, and it consists of many of the guerrillas based in the mountains in the southeast of Algiers. Phalanx commander Bekati Rabah (aka Abdelfattah) was whacked by government security forces in August 1998 while secretly visiting his family about 275 miles west of Algiers.

The government has had some other recent successes in blowing away GIA leaders. On August 12, 1998, security forces shot and killed Eulmi Hamou, 30, GIA commander for the regions of Constantine, Skikda and Guelma in the east of the country, after a month-long manhunt.

There is another GIA group led by Mustafa Kertali, that performs its massacres under the banner of the Islamic Movement for Preaching and Jihad (MIPJ). Kertali is believed responsible for whacking Zitouni. When politicians and academics are in the news for being dead, MIPJ is most likely to have written the headlines. Other leaders included El Mansouri El Miliani, Abdullah Qalek, Abdel-Haq Ayadia and Djafar El Afghani.

Few if any journalists have dared meet with the GIA because of its hatred toward Westerners and its lack of a clear focus or agenda. Some journos believe that the cut throats and cold-blooded massacres of rural peasants has more to do with a major land grab than politics, much the same way the PKK terrorizes small villages that might interfere with its lucrative heroin routes. The GIA has razed some 1,000 schools and executed at least 200 teachers. Of the 100-plus foreigners killed by militants in Algeria since 1992, most were victims of the GIA. The current leaders of Algeria are under a death sentence decreed in a fatwa by Sheik Abedel-Haq el Ayadia, one of the founders of the GIA. The fatwa is all encompassing and includes the people who support the government, including foreign workers and journalists.

The Italian mafia in Sicily and Naples are rumored to be the main hardware suppliers of the GIA arsenal. The law of the GIA is the Hadith el Quran (Koran) much like the Taliban's countrified version of shariOah or Koranic law. The fighters can be found in the Algiers region and in the twisting backstreets of Algiers. One minor lifesaving point: The GIA is said to steer clear of Americans or Germans because their countries granted asylum to their leaders. No foreigners were killed by the GIA in 1998 in Algeria.

Partly due to criticism from Islamic extremist groups abroad against the GIA's campaign of attacking civiliansÑand partly due to recent army successes against the terroristsÑdefections in the GIA are continuing to add up. Dissident GIA leader Hassan Hattab in May 1998 publicly dissed GIA faction leader Antar Zouabri for his slaughter of civilians and in September 1998 split from his boss and created a new GIA offshoot, the Salafi Group for Call and Combat, charged primarily with attacking security force elements. Despite the defection from Zouabri, Hattab's faction continued to blow away Algerians throughout 1998. It was Hattab who whacked popular Berber singer Lounes Matoub in June 1998, an act that made Hattab the Mark Chapman of Algerian pop.

Now It Makes Sense

If you ever wondered how Muslim fundamentalists can justify killing and maiming in the name of God, this recent GIA fax to al-Hayat in London should clear things up for you: "We are that band, with God's permission, who kill and slaughter and we will remain so until the word of religion has prevailed and the word of God is raised high. Let everyone know that what we do in killing and slaughter and burning and pillaging is close to God." Might al-Hayat consider a rebuttal from the pope?