Algerian Civil War

The Algerian Civil War, an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups that begins in 1991, is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives.

More than 70 journalists are assassinated, either by security forces or by Islamists.

The conflict effectively ends with a government victory, following the surrender of the Islamic Salvation Army and the 2002 defeat of the Armed Islamic Group.

However, low-level fighting still continues in some areas.The conflict begins in December 1991, when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party gains popularity among the Algerian people and the National Liberation Front (FLN) party, fearing the former's victory, cancel elections after the first round.

At this time the country's military effectively take control of the government, and president Chadli Bendjedid is forced from office.

After the FIS is banned and thousands of its members arrested, Islamist guerrillas rapidly emerge and begin an armed campaign against the government and its supporters.

They form themselves into several armed groups, principally the Islamic Armed Movement (MIA), based in the mountains, and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), based in the towns.

The guerrillas initially target the army and police, but some groups soon started attack civilians.

In 1994, as negotiations between the government and the FIS's imprisoned leadership reach their height, the GIA declares war on the FIS and its supporters, while the MIA and various smaller groups regroup, becoming the FIS-loyalist Islamic Salvation Army (AIS).Soon after, the talks collapse, and new elections, the first since the 1992 coup d'état, are held—won by the army's candidate (himself a former active participant, as are a significant number of other military officials, in president Bendjedid's FLN government), General Liamine Zéroual.

Conflict between the GIA and AIS intensifies.

Over the next few years, the GIA begins a series of massacres targeting entire neighborhoods or villages; some evidence also suggests the involvement of government forces.

These massacres peakin 1997 around the parliamentary elections, which are won by a newly created pro-Army party, the National Democratic Rally (RND).

The AIS, under attack from both sides, opts for a unilateral ceasefire with the government in 1997, while the GIA is torn apart by splits as various subdivisions object to its new massacre policy.

In 1999, following the election of a new president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a new law gives amnesty to most guerrillas, motivating large numbers to "repent" (as it is termed) and return to normal life.

The violence declines substantially, with effective victory for the government.

The remnants of the GIA proper are hunted down over the next two years, and have practically disappeared by 2002.A splinter group of the GIA, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), initially based on the fringes of Kabylie, had formed in 1998 to dissociate itself from the massacres.

However, despite its former repudiation of attacking non-combatants, they "...eventually returned to killing civilians" and in October of 2003, publicly endorsed Al-Qaeda.

The GSPC, rejecting the amnesty, will continue to fight, although many individual members surrender.

While as of 2006, its comparatively sparse activities - mainly in mountainous parts of the east - are the only remaining fighting in Algeria, a complete end to the violence is not yet in sight.

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