Jund al-Islam is an active armed insurgent group affiliated with

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

operating primarily in Egypt's

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a l ...

Background

The group was established in 2011 shortly after the fall of the Libyan government led by

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

and established training camps in Libya as well, and formally publicized itself in September 2013 after claiming a suicide attack against the Egyptian military's intelligence headquarters in Rafah. The group later went largely in active until 2017, by threatening to fight the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

and its local Sinai affiliate. The group also claims to have links to

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit=Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula or , ''Tanẓīm Qā‘idat al-Jihād fī Jaz ...

, the group also has links to

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

in the Gaza Strip through a Gaza-based Islamic cleric who also has ties to the Syria-based

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) (, transliteration: ', "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political and armed organisation involved in the ...

, which is a coalition of 5 Syrian rebel groups including

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

which is the successor organization to

Jabhat al-Nusra Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

that until 2016 was al-Qaeda's official branch in Syria, and has supported and maintained relations with Jund al-Islam through the Gaza cleric who acts as an intermediary between the two.

al-Qaeda affiliation

Though the group claims to be part of al-Qaeda and has expressed open support for it and its leader

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with ...

and has organizational links with its former Syrian affiliate HTS and claims to have links with its branch in Yemen, al-Qaeda has not acknowledged the group, neither recognizing it as an affiliate or support for it.

History

The group was established in February 2011 and conducted its first action as a group in May 2011 after the

death of Osama bin Laden On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot several times and killed at his compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Nava ...

by showing off its military capabilities, and remained inactive from then until 2013. In September 9, 2013, the group claimed responsibility for a major double suicide attack against an Egyptian military intelligence compound in northern Sinai in the city of

Rafah Rafah ( ar, رفح, Rafaḥ) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate, located south of Gaza City. Rafah's population of 152,950 (2014) is overwhelmingly made up of former Palestinian ...

, resulting in the death of 6 soldiers and seventeen injuries months after the fall of Egypt's former president

Mohamed Morsi Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012Ansar Beit al-Maqdis praised the attack and claimed it was in response for Egyptian crackdowns against Islamists following the fall of Morsi and cooperation with

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Jund al-Islam likewise released a statement with similar rhetoric. On January 2, 2014, gunmen shot dead Mark De Salis and Lynn Howie as they ate lunch on a beach in near Sabratah,

Zawiya district Zawiya, officially Zawia ( ar, محافظة الزاوية ''Az Zāwiya''), is one of the districts of Libya. It is located in the north western part of the country, in what had been the historical region of Tripolitania. Its capital is also name ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

. Jund Al-Islam claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that the couple was targeted for being foreign spies. In November 2017 the group reemerged again, declaring its opposition to the

and its leader

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...

. Jund al-Islam claims that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and ISIL are

Kharijites The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the ...

, and also claims that ISIL's Sinai branch has committed abuses against the local Muslim population and besieged the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

. In January 2018, a Russian foreign fighter part of ISIL's Sinai province defected to Jund al-Islam after several disagreements with ISIL's leadership in Sinai, and was featured in a video released by Jund al-Islam criticizing ISIL. Islamic State's Wilayat Sinai claimed to have "exterminated" the remnants of Jund al-Islam in July 2020, after an encounter in which seven members of the group including their leader 'Abu Ayyub' were killed in the village of al-Burath.

References

{{reflist Jihadist groups in Egypt Jihadist groups in Palestine Qutbist organisations Salafi Jihadist groups