WAbdelhamid Abou Zeid was an Algerian national and Islamist jihadi militant and smuggler who, in about 2010, became one of the top three military commanders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a Mali-based militant organization. He competed as the chief rival of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian national who had become the major commander in AQIM and later head of his own group. Both gained wealth and power by kidnapping and ransoming European nationals. After taking control of Timbuktu in 2012, Abou Zeid established sharia law and destroyed Sufi shrines.
WAl-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization which aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state. To that end, it is currently engaged in an anti-government campaign.
WThe Algerian Six were six Algerian men, who gained citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina during Bosnian War, five of whom will continue to hold a dual Algerian and Bosnian citizenship, and who were imprisoned without charges at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002.
WMokhtar Belmokhtar, also known as The One-Eyed, Nelson, The Uncatchable, is an Algerian leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, smuggler and weapons dealer. He was twice convicted and sentenced to death in absentia under separate charges in Algerian courts: in 2007 for terrorism and in 2008 for murder. In 2004, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Algeria for terrorist activities.
WThe Canary Islands Independence Movement (CIIM), also known as the Movement for the Independence and Self-determination of the Canaries Archipelago, was an independentist organization that had a radio station in Algiers and resorted to violence in attempts to force the Spanish government to create an independent state in the Canary Islands.
WThe Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Algeria Province is a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), active in Algeria. The group was formerly known as Jund al-Khilafah fi Ard al-Jazair.
WThe Organisation Armée Secrète or OAS was a short-lived right-wing French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War (1954–1962). The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was L’Algérie est française et le restera.
WNabil Sahraoui, alias Mustapha Abou Ibrahim, was an Algerian Islamist militant, and the head of the radical Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat from August 2003 until his death the following year.
WThe Special Intervention Group is a special forces group created in Algeria in 1987, initially with 400 members.
WWomen fulfilled a number of different functions during the Algerian War (1954–1962), Algeria's war for independence. The majority of Muslim women who became active participants did so on the side of the National Liberation Front (FLN). The French included some women, both Muslim and French, in their war effort, but they were not as fully integrated, nor were they charged with the same breadth of tasks as their Algerian sisters. The total number of women involved in the conflict, as determined by post-war veteran registration, is numbered at 11,000, but it is possible that this number was significantly higher due to underreporting.