| Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) | |
|---|---|
 Flag of the Islamic Jihad Union in Uzbekistan | |
| Leaders | Najmiddin Jalolov † Abu Omar al-Turkistani †[1] Akhtar Mansour † Ilimbek Mamatov |
| Dates of operation | 2002–2025 |
| Split from | Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan |
| Merged into | Syrian Armed Forces(Syrian faction) Afghan Armed Forces(Taliban,[2] Afghan faction) |
| Allegiance |  Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (since 2015) |
| Headquarters | North Waziristan,Pakistan(historical) Idlib,Syria(before theSyrian rebel takeover andfall of Assad) Badakhshan,Afghanistan(after theTaliban takeover) |
| Ideology | |
| Size | 250 (2023, in Afghanistan)[3] |
| Allies |
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| Opponents | |
| Battles and wars | |
TheIslamic Jihad Union (IJU;Arabic:اتحاد الجهاد الإسلامي,romanized: Ittiḥad al-Jihad al-Islāmī) was a militantIslamist organization founded in 2002 as a splinter group of theIslamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). It was Headquartered inNorth Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwestPakistan, borderingAfghanistan it's was based inBadakhshan in 2021. The group had been affiliated with bothAl-Qaeda and theTaliban.
Under its original nameIslamic Jihad Group (IJG; Arabic:جماعة الجهاد الاسلامي,romanized: Jama'at al-Jihad al-Islāmī), the group conducted several attacks in Uzbekistan. In 2007, a large-scale bomb plot in Germany, known as the"Sauerland terror cell", was discovered by German security authorities.[7] In the following years, the group focused on fighting Pakistani forces in the tribal areas, and NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.[8]
Recruits are mainlyTurks both fromTurkey and theTurkish communities in Western Europe, but also Europeanconverts to Islam, particularly inGerman-speaking countries.[9]
It is likely that some members of the Syrian branch, have become part of theSyrian transitional government's new84th Division.[10]
The IJG was founded in March 2002 as a splinter group from theIslamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), by members of the IMU who wanted to focus on Uzbekistan instead of joining the "global jihad" ofAl-Qaeda. Under its initial nameIslamic Jihad Group, the new group settled inNorth Waziristan and took headquarters inMir Ali.[11][12]
IJG set off a series of bombs from 28 March to 1 April 2004 in Uzbekistan, killing 47 people, and had terror cells in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia. IJG members trained at terror camps inPakistan andKazakhstan. The IJGbombed the Israeli and U.S. embassies and the Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office inTashkent, Uzbekistan on 30 July 2004, saying they targeted "apostate" governments. Several IJG members were arrested in Kazakhstan in late 2004.[13]
U.S.Central Intelligence Agency DirectorPorter Goss testified in March 2005 that IJG "has become a more virulent threat to U.S. interests and local governments." The State Department designated IJG as a global terrorist organization in May 2005. TheUnited Nations Security Council added IJG to its terrorism list in June 2005.[13]
In May 2005, the group changed its name intoIslamic Jihad Union (IJU). After this period, it became closer to core Al-Qaeda, shifting its focus towards plotting terror attacks in Pakistan and Western Europe, particularly Germany.[14]
On 13 October 2005,Hazel Blears MP testified before theHouse of Commons that the IJU should be identified as a banned organization because it posed a threat to British interests overseas.[citation needed] Though some Ministers dissented from this viewpoint, Blears asserted in her testimony that these conclusions were independently corroborated byBritish intelligence service andsecurity service sources, and that many UN members expressed concern regarding the IJG.
In 2007 three terrorists were arrested in Germany after being suspected of plans to attack theFrankfurt International airport and US-Military installations such asRamstein Air Base. The three persons were directly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Group.[15][16]
In 2008 two[7] suspected IJU members were arrested at Germany'sCologne Bonn Airport aboard aKLM flight bound forAmsterdam. The men, who had connecting flights toUganda, were thought to have continuing itineraries on toPakistan, where sources claimed they would participate in some sort of terrorist training or indoctrination. However, after being held for several days, evidence failed to materialize and the men (one Somali and one German citizen of Somali heritage) were released.
Following thediscovered bombing plot of the IJU-affiliated "Sauerland terror cell" in Germany, the group shifted its operations again toAfghanistan, where in early 2008 a German-born Turkish IJU memberdrove a VBIED into a NATO compound, killing at least four people.[17]
A video released online by the IJU's media arm, Badr al-Tawhid, in 2011, showed its members fighting alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces, and providing training to local Uzbek, Tajik and Pashtuns. The same video listed IJU fighters killed in Afghanistan, whose names indicated they had come from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.[18]
In a mid-2015 statement, the IJU website claimed that the group was currently fighting alongside the Taliban, al Qaeda, and theTurkistan Islamic Party in southern Afghanistan, the eastern provinces of Paktika, Paktia, and Nangarhar, and the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Kunduz.[8] In August 2015, the IJU released a statement and photos showing scores of its fighters in Northern Afghanistan pledging allegiance to the newly appointed Taliban leaderAkhtar Mansoor.[19]
Islamic Jihad Union and Imam Bukhari Jamaat are both in Afghanistan in addition to being allied with Al-Qaeda.[20] The Taliban also works with the Islamic Jihad Union.[21]
Islamic Jihad Group, headed by Ilimbek Mamatov, is currently present in theBadakhshan,Baghlan,Kunduz, andTakhar provinces of Afghanistan with some 200 to 250 members, as of 2023.[22]
In July 2019, according to a report from theUnited Nations Security Council, the Islamic Jihad Union had operated in Syria, under the control of the Syrian jihadist groupHayat Tahrir al-Sham.[23]
Following thefall of the Assad regime, the formation of theSyrian transitional government, and the integration offoreign jihadist fighters into the84th Division, it is likely that members of the Islamic Jihad Union were also incorporated into the division, according to theFDD's Long War Journal.[10]
"Taliban have assured Russia and Central Asian countries that it would not allow any group, including the IMU, to use Afghan soil against any foreign state," Muzhdah said.
