Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
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The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (French Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat) is an Algerian Islamist guerilla group which aims to overthrow the Algerian state and institute some sort of Islamic republic.
The GSPC was founded by Hassan Hattab, a former Armed Islamic Group (GIA) fighter who broke with the GIA in the late 1990s over its policy of mass-murder of civilians. Abdelmadjid Dichou is reported to have headed the group before or after him. In October 2003, Nabil Sahraoui, having apparently taken over the group, announced his alignment with al-Qaeda, saying that they "strongly and fully support Osama bin Laden's jihad against the heretic America as well as we support our brothers in Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Chechnya".
Hattab's group has been linked with the kidnapping and ransom of foreign tourists in Algeria, although he has disavowed the random killings of civilians and foreigners practiced by the GIA.
On June 20, 2004, Sahraoui was reported killed in gun battles with Algerian security forces, along with many other high-level members of the group. He was succeeded by Abou Mossaab Abdelouadoud. Currently, the head is reported to be Abdelkader Souane.[1] (http://www.elkhabar.com/html/pageAnglais.html)
External link
- Interview with Abu Omar Abdul Bir of the GSPC Media Wing (http://www.globalterroralert.com/pdf/0105/gspc0105-5.pdf)
- El Para, the Maghreb’s Bin Laden (http://mondediplo.com/2005/02/04algeria) - sceptic's view
- A dossier (http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=411&issue_id=3258&article_id=2369399) (Jamestown Foundation)nl:Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat