Military Periscope :: Islamic Jihad Group

Islamic Jihad Group

Group Name:

Islamic Jihad Group (IJG); also known as Islamic Jihad Union, Jama'at al-Jihad, Libyan Society, Kazakh Jama'at, Jamaat Mujahedin, Jamiat al-Jihad al-Islami, Dzhamaat Modzhakhedov, Islamic Jihad Group of Uzbekistan, al-Djihad al-Islami.

Location/Area of Operation:

The group is active in Uzbekistan. IJG is also believed to train or operate in Kazakhstan and other parts of Central and South Asia. The group also has established some international cells, as evidenced by a foiled bomb plot in Germany in September 2007.

Stated Purpose:

The goal of the Islamic Jihad Group is to overthrow the government in Uzbekistan. The group also seeks to support Islamic militants in the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudia Arabia and other Muslim countries ruled by those it considers "infidels and apostates."

Strength:

Less than 300 members.

External Aid and Links:

The Islamic Jihad Group has been linked to Al-Qaida and has close ties to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Some of those prosecuted in Uzbekistan also confessed to being IJG members and said they had been trained by Arabs at camps in Pakistan and Kazakhstan. Members of the group testified that Najmiddin Jalolov, a member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan convicted in absentia in 2000, led the IJG and maintained links to Taliban head Mohammad Omar, Uighur extremist Abu Mohammad and Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Activities:

Since appearing in 2004, IJG has conducted and/or taken credit for several bombings in Uzbekistan aimed at the Uzbek government as well as American and Israeli targets. IJG members have also attempted to bomb U.S. and Uzbek facilities in Germany, trying to force the German military to withdraw from its base in Uzbekistan.

Overview:

The Islamic Jihad Group is a splinter group of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Islamic Jihad Group leader Najmiddin Jalolov is an IMU member convicted in absentia by Uzbekistan in 2000.

The previously unknown group claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in Tashkent in March and April of 2004. While some officials doubted the claims, sophisticated and simultaneous bomb attacks on the U.S. Embassy, Israeli Embassy and the office of the Uzbek prosecutor general on July 30, 2004, dispelled those doubts.

The group claimed few if any attacks between 2004 and mid-2007, when German authorities said they had uncovered a plot to bomb Uzbek and American government facilities.

After splitting from the IMU in 2002, the IJG initially expanded its scope of operations to greater Central Asia and the West. The group physically remained in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, with headquarters in Mir Ali, a crossroads station for several terrorist groups. However, the group soon abandoned its wider Central Asia objectives in favor of supporting the Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

A planned attack in Germany in 2007 was apparently designed to discourage the German government from participating in the allied effort in Afghanistan.

Group Chronology:

2004
March 28-April 1: After an explosion at an apparent IJG safehouse in Bukharo, Uzbekistan, suicide bombers attacked local government offices and Bukharo police. Thirty-three terrorists and 14 others were killed. The IJG also exploded a series of bombs at a bazaar and other locations in Tashkent, killing at least 12 police and civilians, and injuring dozens more.

July 30: IJG bombed the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Tashkent, as well as the office of the Uzbek prosecutor general, killing three security guards and wounding nine.

2005
May 25: The U.S. State Dept. officially designated the Islamic Jihad Group as a foreign terrorist organization.

June 1: The United Nations added the IJG to its list of designated terrorist groups.

2007
Sept. 7: German security forces arrested four suspects in Medebach-Oberschledorn who were charged with planning bomb attacks against Ramstein Air Base and the Frankfurt airport. A week later, IJG claimed responsibility for the plot, adding that other targets included American and Uzbek diplomatic facilities in Germany. The planned attacks were intended to drive Germany from its military base in Termez, Uzbekistan.

2008
March 3: A German-born Turk killed two Americans and two Afghans at an American base in Khost in a suicide attack. The IJG claimed responsibility for the attack and released videos showing the attacker preparing for and conducting the attack. The incident underscored indications that the IJG had recruited a number of German-Turkish militants and had trained the recruits in Pakistan's Waziristan region.

June 18: The U.S. Treasury designated IJG leader Najmiddin Jalolov and deputy leader Suhayl Fatilloevich Buranov as terrorists, freezing their assets in the U.S. and prohibiting U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions with them.

June 19: Three IJG members were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 18 to 22 years by the Tajik Supreme Court for preparing terrorist acts. A dozen others in the group were convicted of terrorism in Tajikistan since the beginning of 2007.

2009
April: Turkish authorities seized weapons and detained extremists with ties to IJG.

May: The IJG conducted killed a policeman in the Andijon region of Uzbekistan.

September: In Pakistan, a U.S. drone aircraft killed Najmiddin Jalolov, an IJG leader. The drone fired a missile that hit a four-wheel drive vehicle, killing Jalolov and three other people in the Mir Ali area, a district known as a center of Taliban and Al-Qaida operations.

2010
March 4: Four Islamic militants apprehended in September 2007 by German authorities were sentenced to various prison terms for plotting to attack American targets in Germany. Two of the four received 12-year sentences, one for 11 years and a fourth for five years in what the judge termed a potential "monstrous blood bath." The court determined that three of the four militants were members of the IJG.

Last Updated:

March 2010