Vanguards of Conquest

The Vanguards of Conquest (Talaa'al al-Fateh) is a terrorist organization that was originally founded in 1993 as a branch of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad operating in Somalia, but became a separate faction that eventually folded back into the group under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri.[1] The revived group is currently led by Magdy Salem.[2] The group has intervened to stop jihadis in the Sinai Peninsula from attacking Israel.[3]

History

In its first year, the Vanguards carried out two failed assassination attempts, the first in August, a Cairo bombing that only managed to injure Egyptian Interior Minister Hasan al-Alfi,[4] and three months later a similar bombing aimed at Prime Minister Atef Sedki, which killed a teenage girl at a bus stop.[5]

In late May 1995, Hassan al-Turabi met with al-Zawahiri to discuss the future of the Vanguards of Conquest; now to operate solely out of Egypt.[6] al-Zawahiri and Mstafa Hamzah organised a meeting in Ferney-Voltaire on the French-Swiss border, attended by a colleague of Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim, an associate of Showqi Al-Islambouli and the son of Said Ramadan.[6] The group decided to focus their efforts on Addis Ababa, and that their veteran members would come together under the leadership of Islambouli.[6]

In June 1995, they launched a failed attack against President Hosni Mubarak.[7]

The leader of the Vanguards was believed to be Kamel Agiza, and Canadian officials allege that Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub was his second-in-command.[8]

In December 1998, the Vanguards of Conquest issued a communique to Islamist groups calling for attacks against the United States "for its arrogance" in bombing Iraq ostensibly to distract from the Monica Lewinsky scandal.[9][10]

The group is alleged to have folded into Qaeda-al-Jihad when Zawahiri merged his group with Osama bin Laden in 2001. But in April 2002, Egyptian security forces arrested 30 men for allegedly planning to revive the Vanguards.[11]

gollark: It only got coal this year.
gollark: Little do you know that that's actually a *bad* integrated circuit.
gollark: The current time is just the earliest time not in use by anyone else.
gollark: I use UUT - Unambiguous Universal Time.
gollark: Shame we'll lose the compact machine builds though.

References
  1. USIS Washington File, May 9, 2000, "US indicts suspects in East Africa Bombings", pp 1-4.
  2. "Jama'a al-Islamiya: Dozens of jihadis to join Syrian rebels within days". Egypt Independent. 26 August 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  3. Rahim, Ahmad (21 November 2012). "Egypt's Islamic Jihad Urges Restraint by Sinai Salafists". Al Monitor. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  4. "Al Jihad: Egypt's second largest armed Islamic movement", Agence France Presse, November 18, 1997, p. 1
  5. "Jihad Group", Milnet Terrorist Group Profiles, September 21, 1998, p. 1
  6. Bodansky, Yossef. "Osama bin Laden", 1999
  7. Terrorist Incidents, Record #7632, Iterate "Ethiopia", June 26, 1995, p. 1
  8. Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub
  9. Hitchens, Christopher. "No One Left to Lie To" Verso. 1999
  10. Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah, February 22, 2008. Appendix A.
  11. Extremist Groups, 2002, An international compilation of terrorist organizations, violent political groups, and issue-oriented militant movements (electronic document), 2nd Edition; Office of International Criminal Justice and the Institute for the Study of Violent Groups, Sam Houston State University, 2002, "Vanguards of the Islamic Conquest", p .1
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