Jund al-Khilafa is an Algerian terrorist group that divided from Al-Qaeda on 14 September 2014 and pledged its loyalty to the Islamic State. It was responsible for the beheading of French tour guide Herve Gourdel on 24 September 2014.
History[]
Jund al-Khilafa was originally a part of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and took part in the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, and it took part in many attacks in the Kabilye region of Algeria. In April 2014, they killed 11 Algerian Army soldiers in an ambush. Khaled Abou Slimane (also known as Abdelmalek Gouri, born 1977) was the leader of the vicious group, and many tourists fled the Kabilye forests and mountains to flee from the Jund al-Khilafa. On 14 September 2014, the group pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State and on 24 September they beheaded captured French Atlas Mountains tour guide Herve Gourdel in revenge for France's involvement in airstrikes in the Syrian Civil War against IS.