al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib

Algeria-based militant group

Also known as: AQIM, GSPC, Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat, al-Qāʿidah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī(Show More)

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History

al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghrib (AQIM), Algeria-based Islamic militant group, active in North Africa and the Sahel region. The organization was founded as the GSPC in 1998 by a former member of the Armed Islamic Group (Groupe Islamique Armé; GIA), an Islamic militant group that participated in Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s. The GSPC continued to fight the Algerian government but renounced the killing of Algerian civilians, a common GIA practice. The GSPC took...