Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Group (IG).

The IG operates primarily in the Al-Minya, Asyu't, Qina and Sohaj governorates in southern Egypt. The group receives support in Alexandria and Cairo, as well as other Egyptian cities. Al-Gama'a also maintains a presence in several foreign countries including Afghanistan, Austria, Sudan, U.K. and Yemen.

The IG seeks to overthrow the secular Egyptian government and replace it with a fundamentalist Islamic state.

The total number of IG members remains unknown. The group likely had several thousand hardcore fighters at its peak, with several thousand additional sympathizers. However, since a 1999 cease-fire and security crackdowns, membership numbers have been cut substantially.

Egyptian officials believe the bulk of the IG's financial backing comes from Iran, Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida network, as well as some Afghan militant groups. Money is also laundered from various nongovernmental groups such as Islamic charities and schools.

Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya insurgents specialized in armed attacks against the Egyptian military, Coptic Christians and domestic opponents of Muslim fundamentalism. Until a 1999 cease-fire, the IG also launched several attacks on tourists, most notably the November 1997 massacre of 58 civilians at Luxor, Egypt. Militants have also targeted political leaders and bankers. In June 1995, the group claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was started during the 1970s as a religious movement, not an organized group, mainly in Egyptian jails and later in Egyptian universities. The IG was primarily influenced by the militant ideology of Sayyid Qutb, who helped form the ideological base of several Islamic militant groups in the Arab world.

After former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat released most of the Islamic prisoners from Egyptian jails in 1971, several groups of militants began to organize themselves. Among these organizations was the Islamic Group. In addition to its hardcore fighters, the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya has an external political wing.

Members of the IG are not known to have conducted an attack since August 1998, and leaders of the group signed a cease-fire with Cairo in March 1999. However, the group's spiritual leader, Shaykh Umar Abd al-Rahman, who was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, withdrew his support for the cease-fire in June 2000.

Despite publicly denying any connections with Osama bin Laden, Rifa'i Taha Musa-a, a former IG leader, signed bin Laden's 1998 fatwa (religious decree) calling for attacks against American citizens. Taha Musa-a was also seen in an undated video alongside bin Laden and his top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri. Taha Musa-a spent several years trying to re-establish the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, but the group maintained its official commitment to the cease-fire. Leaders of the group have also apologized for past attacks, and have publicly promoted coexistence with the Mubarak regime. Taha was arrested at the Damascus airport in October 2001 and quietly extradited to Egypt. His fate is unknown; Egyptian officials said he was executed, but as late as 2006 Al-Qaida indicated he was alive in prison.

Remaining Gama'a al Islamiyya sympathizers have adopted a Salafist Islamic stance often associated with anti-Western concepts. Many are said to be seeking more conciliatory means to resolve differences.

October: A car bomb exploded outside a police station in Rijeka, Croatia, injuring 29 bystanders. IG claimed responsibility for the attack.

November: A massive suicide car bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan, destroyed the Egyptian Embassy compound and damaged several surrounding buildings, leaving 16 dead and some 60 wounded. IG, the Jihad Group and the International Justice Group all claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Aug. 4: Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in a video released by Al_Qaida, claimed his group had joined forces with the IG. One leader, Najih Ibrahim, quickly denied this claim. In an interview with a London newspaper, Ibrahim said his group refused to join with Al-Qaida "because their goal is jihad, whereas our goal is Islam."