The Islamic State – Algeria Province (IS-AP; , ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah – Wilayah al-Jazā’ir) is a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State (IS), active in Algeria. The group was formerly known as Jund al-Khilafah fi Ard al-Jazair (, meaning Soldiers of the Caliphate in the land of Algeria or Caliphate Soldiers of Algeria).
After kidnapping a 55-year-old French mountaineering guide, Hervé Gourdel, the group stated in a video on 22 September 2014, that the kidnapping was a fulfilling of an order of IS spokesman al-'Adnani to attack citizens of countries fighting with the U.S. against IS. On 24 September 2014, Wilayah al-Jazair claimed to have beheaded Hervé Gourdel.
It is classified as a terror group by the UK, as well as by the US under the name Jund al-Khilafah (JAK-A). Also Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan designated the group as terrorist.
History
Under Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Wilayah al-Jazair was previously a faction of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the Al Qaeda affiliate in North and West Africa. AQIM grew out of Algerian Islamist groups that had fought in the 1990s Civil War. Abdelmalek Gouri (who would later lead Jund al-Khilafah) was formerly the "right-hand man" of Abdelmalek Droukdel, who was the leader of AQIM. Gouri was also part of an AQIM cell responsible for suicide attacks on the government's headquarters and the UN compound in Algiers in 2007. He was also behind an attack in Iboudrarene in April 2014 that left 11 Algerian soldiers dead.
As Jund al-Khilafah
On 14 September 2014, the leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the central region, Khaled Abu Suleiman (nom de guerre of Abdelmalek Gouri), announced in a communique he was breaking allegiance with Al-Qaeda and took an oath of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He was reportedly joined by an AQIM commander of an eastern region of Algeria. He claimed that other members of AQIM had "deviated from the right path" and declared to al-Baghdadi "You have in the Islamic Maghreb men who will obey your orders."
As Wilayah al-Jazair
On 13 November 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced that the group had changed its name to "Wilayah al-Jazair" in accordance to the structure of the rest of groups aligned with IS. In December 2014, Gourdel's killer was killed by Algerian security forces. In May 2015, over 20 members of the group, including commanders, were killed in a military raid. The group was devastated by the raids, and turned its focus to propaganda while attempting to rebuild. Although it advertised the pledges of allegiance of several AQIM splinter factions during 2015, none of the groups involved are believed to be large, and the group did not claim responsibility for any attacks in the year following the kidnapping and killing of Gourdel.