The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) was a Salafi Islamist terrorist group that operated in Algeria from 1996 to 2006. Founded by Hassan Hattab as a splintergroup of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), it pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004 and became al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in 2006.
History[]
The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat was founded by Hassan Hattab, a former Armed Islamic Group (GIA) commander who was alienated by the GIA's massive massacres of Algerians and their possible infiltration by the government. The GSPC, as it was known in French, grew to almost 4,000 fighters and continued the fight against the government of Algeria during the Algerian Civil War, but in 2003 Hattab was overthrown for his openness for talks with the government and Nabil Sahraoui replaced him. He pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, and although Nabil was killed in 2004, Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud took power and the group became stronger. The government waged war on the jihadists and won the civil war, and GSPC considered surrendering to Algeria, but in 2006 Ayman al-Zawahiri declared that GSPC and al-Qaeda formed a blessed union as "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb".