Islamic Jihad Union

"IJU" redirects here. For other uses, see IJU (disambiguation).

"Islamic Jihad Group" redirects here. For the organization formerly known as the Jihad Group, see Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Militant Islamist organization in northwest Pakistan

Islamic Jihad Union (IJU)

Flag of the Islamic Jihad Union in Uzbekistan

Leaders| Najmiddin Jalolov †
Abu Omar al-Turkistani †[1]
Akhtar Mansour †
Ilimbek Mamatov
Dates of operation| 2002–present
Split from| Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Allegiance|  Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (since 2015)
Headquarters| North Waziristan
Ideology|

* Sunni Islamism
* Qutbism
* Salafi jihadism
* Wahabism
* Pan-Islamism

Size| 200-250 in Afghanistan (2023)[2]
Allies|

* Taliban
* al-Qaeda
* Turkistan Islamic Party
* Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (formally multiple times before alliance with ISIL in 2015)[3][4]
* Caucasus Emirate
* Tahrir al-Sham

Opponents|

* Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
* Uzbekistan
* ISAF
* Germany
* United States
* Russia
* India
* Qatar
* Iran
* Poland
* Syria
* Tajikistan
* Pakistan
* China[5]

Battles and wars| Global War on Terrorism

War in Afghanistan

* Taliban insurgency

War in North-West Pakistan

* Operation Zarb-e-Azb

The Islamic Jihad Union (IJU; Arabic: اتحاد الجهاد الإسلامي, romanized: Ittiḥad al-Jihad al-Islāmī) is a militant Islamist organization founded in 2002 as a splinter group of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Headquartered in North Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, the group has been affiliated with both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Under its original name Islamic Jihad Group (IJG; Arabic: جماعة الجهاد الاسلامي, romanized: Jama'at al-Jihad al-Islāmī), the group conducted several attacks in Uzbekistan. In 2007, a large-scale bomb plot in Germany, known as the "Sauerland terror cell", was discovered by German security authorities.[6] In the following years, the group focused on fighting Pakistani forces in the tribal areas, and NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.[7]

Recruits are mainly Turks both from Turkey and the Turkish communities in Western Europe, but also European converts to Islam, particularly in German-speaking countries.[8]

## History

[edit]

### Islamic Jihad Group

[edit]

The IJG was founded in March 2002 as a splinter group from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), after the movement was effectively tied between those who aimed to join the Global Jihad, and those who wanted to keep pressure and focus on Uzbekistan. Under its initial name Islamic Jihad Group, the new group settled in North Waziristan and took headquarters in Mir Ali.[9]

IJG set off a series of bombs from 28 March to 1 April 2004 in Uzbekistan, killing 47 people, and had terror cells in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia. IJG members trained at terror camps in Pakistan and Kazakhstan. The IJG bombed the Israeli and U.S. embassies and the Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 30 July 2004, saying they targeted "apostate" governments. Several IJG members were arrested in Kazakhstan in late 2004.[10]

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter Goss testified in March 2005 that IJG "has become a more virulent threat to U.S. interests and local governments." The State Department designated IJG as a global terrorist organization in May 2005. The United Nations Security Council added IJG to its terrorism list in June 2005.[10]

### Al-Qaeda affiliation

[edit]

In May 2005, the group changed its name into Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). After this period, it became closer to core Al-Qaeda, shifting its focus towards plotting terror attacks in Pakistan and Western Europe, particularly Germany.[11]

On 13 October 2005, Hazel Blears MP testified before the House of Commons that the IJU should be identified as a banned organization because it posed a threat to British interests overseas.[citation needed] Though some Ministers dissented from this viewpoint, Blears asserted in her testimony that these conclusions were independently corroborated by British intelligence service and security service sources, and that many UN members expressed concern regarding the IJG.

### Sauerland-Gruppe

[edit]

Main article: 2007 bomb plot in Germany

In 2007 three terrorists were arrested in Germany after being suspected of plans to attack the Frankfurt International airport and US-Military installations such as Ramstein Air Base. The three persons were directly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Group.[12][13]

In 2008 two[6] suspected IJU members were arrested at Germany's Cologne Bonn Airport aboard a KLM flight bound for Amsterdam. The men, who had connecting flights to Uganda, were thought to have continuing itineraries on to Pakistan, where sources claimed they would participate in some sort of terrorist training or indoctrination. However, after being held for several days, evidence failed to materialize and the men (one Somali and one German citizen of Somali heritage) were released.

### Reorientation to Afghanistan

[edit]

Following the discovered bombing plot of the IJU-affiliated "Sauerland terror cell" in Germany, the group shifted its operations again to Afghanistan, where in early 2008 a German-born Turkish IJU member drove a VBIED into a NATO compound, killing at least four people.[14]

A video released online by the IJU's media arm, Badr al-Tawhid, in 2011, showed its members fighting alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces, and providing training to local Uzbek, Tajik and Pashtuns. The same video listed IJU fighters killed in Afghanistan, whose names indicated they had come from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.[15]

In a mid-2015 statement, the IJU website claimed that the group was currently fighting alongside the Taliban, al Qaeda, and the Turkistan Islamic Party in southern Afghanistan, the eastern provinces of Paktika, Paktia, and Nangarhar, and the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Kunduz.[7] In August 2015, the IJU released a statement and photos showing scores of its fighters in Northern Afghanistan pledging allegiance to the newly appointed Taliban leader Akhtar Mansoor.[16]

Islamic Jihad Union and Imam Bukhari Jamaat are both in Afghanistan in addition to being allied with Al-Qaeda.[17] The Taliban also works with the Islamic Jihad Union.[18]

Islamic Jihad Group, headed by Ilimbek Mamatov, is currently present in Badakhshan, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Takhar with some 200 to 250 members.

### Participation in the Syrian civil war

[edit]

In July 2019, according to a report from the United Nations Security Council, the Islamic Jihad Union has operated in Syria, under the control of the Syrian jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.[19]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Caleb Weiss (14 February 2017). "Uighur jihadist fought in Afghanistan, killed in Syria". Long War Journal. Archived from the original on 14 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
2. ^ "UN security council report on Afghanistan" (PDF). UN. 2023-06-01.
3. ^ "Why Central Asian states want peace with the Taliban". DW News. 27 March 2018. Archived from the original on 14 May 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2022. ""Taliban have assured Russia and Central Asian countries that it would not allow any group, including the IMU, to use Afghan soil against any foreign state," Muzhdah said."
4. ^ Roggio, Bill; Weiss, Caleb (14 June 2016). "Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan faction emerges after group's collapse". Long War Journal. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
5. ^ "Three groups active in Xinjiang banned". 24 October 2013. Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
6. ^ a b DPA news agency (kjb) (September 19, 2008), Germany Arrests Two Suspected of Failed Terror Plot, Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on October 24, 2012, retrieved September 20, 2008
7. ^ a b "Islamic Jihad Union details its involvement in Taliban's Azm offensive". Long War Journal. 25 July 2015. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
8. ^ Sandee 2008, pp. 11, 22.
9. ^ Sandee 2008, p. 2.
10. ^ a b Central Asia: Regional Developments and Implications for U.S. interests Archived 2017-02-11 at the Wayback Machine Library of Congress
11. ^ Sandee 2008, p. 11.
12. ^ Smith, Diane (September 5, 2007), Three Suspected Terrorists Arrested in Germany, eFluxMedia, archived from the original on September 7, 2008, retrieved September 20, 2008
13. ^ DPA news agency (dc) (September 2, 2008). "Germany Indicts "Home Grown" Islamists for Terrorist Bomb Plot". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2008.
14. ^ Sandee 2008, p. 15.
15. ^ Bill Rogio (February 3, 2012). "Islamic Jihad Union details cooperation with Afghan Taliban". Long War Journal. Archived from the original on February 27, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
16. ^ "Central Asian groups split over leadership of global jihad". Long War Journal. 24 August 2015. Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
17. ^ Roggio, Bill; Weiss, Caleb (February 22, 2017). "Al Qaeda-linked Uzbek groups advertise operations in Afghanistan". Long War Journal. Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Archived from the original on February 25, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
18. ^ "New video message from the Islamic Jihād Union: "Joint Operation with Soldiers of the Islamic Emirate"". Jihadology. February 21, 2017. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
19. ^ "UN: Islamic Jihad Union operates in Syria". Long War Journal. July 31, 2019. Archived from the original on August 3, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2019.

### Literature

[edit]

* Sandee, Ronald (October 14, 2008). "The Islamic Jihad Union (IJU)" (PDF). NEFA Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 24, 2012.
* Einar Wigen (2009) Islamic Jihad Union: al-Qaida’s Key to the Turkic World? FFI-report 2009/00687
* "Islamic Jihad Group's Links with Uzbekistani Terrorism Mulled," Viktoriya Panfilova, April 19, 2004, Moscow, Nezavisimaya Gazeta
* "Islamic Jihad Group in Uzbekistan Claims Responsibility for Suicide Attacks," FBIS, July 30, 2004
* "U.S. Department of State Designates the Islamic Jihad Group Under Executive Order 13224," Press Statement: Richard Boucher, May 26, 2005, US Department of State
* "Country Reports on Terrorism 2005," April 28, 2006, U.S. Department of State

## External links

[edit]

* (in Uzbek) Official website

* v
* t
* e

2007 bomb plot in Germany

Plotters|

* Fritz Gelowicz
* Adem Yilmaz
* Daniel Schneider

Associates|

* Islamic Jihad Union
* Atilla Selek

Targets|

* Ramstein Air Base
* Frankfurt Airport
* other public locations

* v
* t
* e

Al-Qaeda

Leadership|

* Saif al-Adel
* Abd al-Rahman al-Maghribi
* Ahmad Umar
* Iyad Ag Ghaly
* Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil
* Abu Ubaidah Youssef al-Annabi
* Ali Sayyid Muhamed Mustafa al-Bakri
* Ibrahim al-Banna
* Ibrahim al Qosi
* Abu Walid al-Masri
* Mohammed Showqi Al-Islambouli
* Abdukadir Mohamed Abdukadir
* Fuad Qalaf
* Jehad Mostafa
* Abu Humam al-Shami
* Sami al-Oraydi

Former
leadership|

| Killed|

* Osama bin Laden (killing)
* Ayman al-Zawahiri (killing)
* Mohammed Atef
* Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi
* Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil
* Haitham al-Yemeni
* Abu Hamza Rabia
* Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah
* Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
* Omar al-Faruq
* Haitham al-Badri
* Abu Yaqub al-Masri
* Abu Talha al-Sudani
* Abu Laith al-Libi
* Abu Sulayman Al-Jazairi
* Midhat Mursi
* Mohamed Moumou
* Khalid Habib
* Abu Ghadiya
* Abu Zubair al-Masri
* Rashid Rauf
* Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim
* Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam
* Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan
* Saad bin Laden
* Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan
* Abdullah Said al Libi
* Saleh al-Somali
* Saeed al-Masri
* Hamza al-Jawfi
* Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali
* Mohamed Abul-Khair
* Sheikh Fateh
* Huthaifa al-Batawi
* Ilyas Kashmiri
* Fazul Abdullah Mohammed
* Atiyah Abd al-Rahman
* Anwar al-Awlaki
* Samir Khan
* Tariq al-Dahab
* Muhammad Sa'id Ali Hasan
* Fahd al-Quso
* Abu Yahya al-Libi
* Hassan Ghul
* Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti
* Said Ali al-Shihri
* Farman Ali Shinwari
* Abdelhamid Abou Zeid
* Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad
* Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki
* Said Bahaji
* Abu Khalid al-Suri
* Omar Ould Hamaha
* Ahmed Abdi Godane
* Abu Yusuf Al-Turki
* Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah
* Adam Yahiye Gadahn
* Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari
* Othman Ahmad Othman al-Ghamdi
* Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad al-Rubaysh
* Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi
* Nasir al-Wuhayshi
* Muhsin al-Fadhli
* Abu Khalil al-Madani
* Matiur Rehman
* Abu Firas al-Suri
* Ahmed Refai Taha
* Mokhtar Belmokhtar
* Abu Khayr al-Masri
* Ibrahim al-Asiri
* Hamza bin Laden
* Sari Shihab
* Asim Umar
* Qasim al-Raymi
* Abdelmalek Droukdel
* Khalid al-Aruri
* Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
* Abu Muhsin al-Masri

|

Captured|

* Mamdouh Mahmud Salim
* Wadih el-Hage
* Khalid al-Fawwaz
* Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri
* Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
* Walid bin Attash
* Riduan Isamuddin
* Ali al-Bahlul
* Ahmed Ghailani
* Abu Faraj al-Libbi
* Mustafa Setmariam Nasar
* Abdul Hadi al Iraqi
* Muhammad Jafar Jamal al-Kahtani
* Mohamed Atiq Awayd Al Harbi
* Younis al-Mauritani
* Sulaiman Abu Ghaith
* Abu Anas al-Libi
* Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh
* Mukhtar Robow
* Amin al-Haq

Other|

* Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri (died)
* Abu Ubaidah al-Masri (died)
* Mahfouz Ould al-Walid (left)
* Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (expelled)
* Abu Mohammad al-Julani (left)
* Abu Maria al-Qahtani (left)
* Ahmad Salama Mabruk (left)
* Abu Omar al-Turkistani (left)
* Abu Sulayman al-Muhajir (left)
* Khalid Batarfi (died)

Timeline
of attacks|

* 1998 United States embassy bombings
* 2000 USS Cole bombing
* 2001 September 11 attacks
* 2002 Bali bombings
* 2004 Madrid train bombings
* 2005 London bombings
* 2007 Algiers bombings
* 2008 Islamabad Danish embassy bombing
* 2008 Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
* 2013 In Amenas hostage crisis
* 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack
* 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting
* 2015 Garissa University College attack
* 2015 Bamako hotel attack
* 2016 Ouagadougou attacks
* 2016 Grand-Bassam shootings
* 2016 Bamako attack
* 2019 Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting

Wars|

* Soviet–Afghan War
* Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)
* Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)
* First Chechen War
* Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)
* Second Chechen War
* War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
* Iraq War
* Somali Civil War
* War in North-West Pakistan (drone strikes)
* Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
* Syrian civil war
* Yemeni civil war (2014–present)
* Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
* Houthi insurgency

Affiliates|

* Al-Shabaab (Somalia)
* Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen)
* Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa)
* Egyptian Islamic Jihad (Egypt)
* Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (Indian subcontinent)
* Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (Mali)
* Hurras al-Din (Syria)

Charity organizations|

* Benevolence International Foundation
* Al-Haramain Foundation

Media|

* Al Qaeda Handbook
* Al Neda
* As-Sahab
* Fatawā of Osama bin Laden
* Inspire
* Al-Khansaa
* Kuala Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit
* Management of Savagery
* Voice of Jihad
* Qaedat al-Jihad
* Global Islamic Media Front

Video and audio|

* Videos and audio recordings of Osama bin Laden
* Videos and audio recordings of Ayman al-Zawahiri
* USS Cole bombing

Related|

* Safe houses
* Saddam–al-Qaeda conspiracy theory
* Timeline

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