The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (French Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat) is an Algerian Islamist guerilla group which aims to overthrow the Algerian state and institute some sort of Islamic republic.

The GSPC was founded by Hassan Hattab, a former Armed Islamic Group(GIA) fighter who broke with the GIA in the late 1990s over its policy of mass-murder of civilians. In 2004, Hattab faced a leadership challenge from Nabil Sarwari, who claimed to want to align the group with Al-Qaeda.

Hattab's group has been linked with the kidnapping and ransom of foreign tourists in Algeria, although he has disavowed the random killings of civilians and foreigners practiced by the GIA.

In 2004, both Hattab and Sarwari were reported killed in separate gun battles with Algerian security forces, along with many other high-level members of the group. Given these deaths, the future of the GSPC is uncertain as of this writing.

This is the "Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.