Mustapha Kartali (or Kertali) was the main Islamist guerrilla leader in the Larbaa region during the

Algerian Civil War The Algerian Civil War ( ar, rtl=yes, الْحَرْبُ الْأَهْلِيَّةُ الجَزَائِرِيَّةُ, al-Ḥarb al-ʾAhlīyah al-Jazāʾirīyah) was a civil war in Algeria fought between the Algerian government and various Is ...

. Born in 1946, he was elected

FIS FIS or fis may refer to: Science and technology * '' Fis'', an ''E. Coli'' gene * Fis phenomenon, a phenomenon in linguistics * F♯ (musical note) * Flight information service, an air traffic control service * Frame Information Structure, a Se ...

mayor of Larbaa, a town south of Algiers, in 1991. After the military banned FIS, he joined the

Armed Islamic Group The Armed Islamic Group (GIA, from french: Groupe Islamique Armé; ar, الجماعة الإسلامية المسلّحة, al-Jamāʿa l-ʾIslāmiyya l-Musallaḥa) was one of the two main Islamist insurgent groups that fought the Algerian gove ...

's guerrillas in fighting the government, becoming an ''emir''. In late 1995, however, he left it - motivated, he claims, by its atrocities, and objecting to the new leadership of

Djamel Zitouni Abu Abdul-Rahman Amine, born Djamel bin Mohamed Zitouni (January 5, 1964 in Les Eucalyptus, Algiers Province – July 16, 1996), was the leader of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (1994–1996), a terrorist group responsible for carrying out a ser ...

. On July 21, 1996, he announced the creation of a new organization - the

Islamic Movement for Preaching and Jihad Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the main ...

(MIPD) - uniting ex-GIA dissidents with the Movement for an Islamic State (MEI) and

Islamic Front for Armed Jihad The Islamic Front for Armed Jihad (French name, ''Front Islamique du Djihad Armé'', hence the abbreviation FIDA) was a militant Islamist organization active during the Algerian Civil War. It called for the violent overthrow of the secular Algeria ...

(FIDA); in the announcement, he condemned both the GIA and the AIS. His area of influence was around Larbaa, up to about Meftah and

Tablat Tablat is a town and commune in Médéa Province, Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates ...

; at one point, his group is said to have numbered about 300. The government put a price on his head of 3 million dinars. In 1996, his son was arrested, and disappeared. He eventually aligned himself with the FIS's armed wing, the

Islamic Salvation Army The Islamic Salvation Front ( ar, الجبهة الإسلامية للإنقاذ, al-Jabhah al-Islāmiyah lil-Inqādh; french: Front Islamique du Salut, FIS) was an Islamist political party in Algeria. The party had two major leaders representi ...

, becoming the head of its '' Katibat Errahmane'' brigade. GIA efforts to take revenge on him for his desertion have been advanced as a possible motive for the

Si-Zerrouk massacre The Si Zerrouk massacre took place in the Si Zerrouk neighborhood in the south of Larbaa in Algeria on 27 July 1997. About 50 people were killed. Background In 1997, Algeria was at the peak of a civil conflict that had begun after the militar ...

(July 1997), the Djiboulo massacre (December 1997), and the

Larbaa market bombing Larbaa may refer to: * Larbaa, Blida – a ''commune'' or municipality of Blida province, Algeria * Larbaa, Batna – a ''commune'' or municipality of Batna province, Algeria * Larbaa, Tissemsilt – a ''commune'' or municipality of Tissemsi ...

(July 2002) around Larbaa. ''El Watan'' mistakenly reported on February 23, 1997, that his corpse had been found; however, he was in fact alive. He soon joined the AIS's unilateral ceasefire of October 1, 1997. He and 150 members of his group ceased combat on November 8, 1997 and took the amnesty offered by the government in September 1999 (other members had already done so in December 1998). He went on

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

around 2004. The amnesty he received angered some locals, who see it as leaving crimes unpunished. Notably,

Amina Kouidri Aminatu (also Amina; died 1610) was a Hausa Muslim historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (now city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now in the north-west region of Nigeria. She might have ruled in the mid-sixteenth century. A controver ...

, leader of a local association for victims of terrorism, holds him responsible for the unpunished murder of her twelve-year-old sister in 1994. He denies this, blaming the murder on the GIA. Nissa Hammadi (''Le Matin'' 30 Dec. 2001) claims that he is estimated to have a personal fortune of "several billion centimes" saved from his time as a guerrilla, taken from donations and unofficial taxes; it does not give its sources for this estimate. On August 14, 2007, Kartali's car was attacked with a bomb in Larbaa and he was badly injured, losing one of his legs."Former Algerian rebel leader wounded by bomb"
Reuters (''IOL''), August 14, 2007.

References

External links

Algeria Interface interview

Amina Kouidri

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kartali, Mustapha Algerian Civil War People from Blida Province 1946 births Living people