The Mujahideen Shura Council, was an umbrella organization of at least six Sunni Islamist insurgent groups taking part in the Iraqi insurgency against U.S.-led Coalition and Iraqi forces. The groups included in the MSC were: Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Saraya al-Jihad Group, al-Ghuraba Brigades, and al-Ahwal Brigades. In mid-October 2006, a statement was released, stating that the Mujahideen Shura Council had been disbanded, and was replaced by the Islamic State of Iraq.
Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, more commonly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, was a Salafi jihadist organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda. It was founded on 17 October 2004, and was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi until its disbandment on 15 October 2006 after he was killed in a targeted bombing on June 7, 2006 in Hibhib, Iraq by the United States Air Force.
Mujahideen, or Mujahidin, is the plural form of mujahid, an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in jihad, interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community (ummah).
Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched tens of thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip as part of the continuing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The attacks, widely condemned for targeting civilians, have been described as terrorism by the United Nations, the European Union, and Israeli officials, and are defined as war crimes by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets to be illegal under international law. Palestinian militants say rocket attacks are a response to Israel's blockade of Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority has condemned them and says rocket attacks undermine peace.
Jund Ansar Allah was an armed Palestinian Salafi-jihadist organization operating in the Gaza Strip. It was founded in November 2008 by Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa. On 14 August 2009, Moussa announced the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The group criticized the ruling power, Hamas, for failing to enforce Sharia law. In response, Hamas attacked the organization, resulting in 24 people killed and a further 150 wounded. After the battle, Jund Ansar Allah ceased to exist.
Rocket attacks on the neighboring cities of Eilat, in Israel, and Aqaba, in Jordan, have been a tactic used by militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and organizations linked with Al-Qaeda because of the relative ease of launching rocket attacks against these two cities from adjacent desert areas. Most of these attacks target Eilat, the last attack on Aqaba was in 2010.
Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin was a Sunni Islamist Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai peninsula. The establishment of the group was publicly announced on 6 November 2008, with communiqués vowing loyalty to al-Qaeda, after having "received the messages of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri." Various forms of the "Tawhid al-Jihad" label have appeared in relation to developments in the Gaza Strip. The size of the group is not publicly known. The group have no reported attack since 2012 and is considered as defunct.
On August 18, 2011, a series of cross-border attacks with parallel attacks and mutual cover was carried out in southern Israel on Highway 12 near the Egyptian border by a squad of presumably twelve militants in four groups. The attacks occurred after Israel's interior security service Shin Bet had warned of an attack by militants in the region and Israeli troops had been stationed in the area. The militants first opened fire at an Egged No. 392 bus as it was traveling on Highway 12 in the Negev near Eilat. Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In a third attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians. Eight Israelis – six civilians, one Yamam special unit police sniper and one Golani Brigade soldier—were killed in the multiple-stage attack. The Israel Defense Forces reported eight attackers killed, and Egyptian security forces reported killing another two.
The August 2012 Sinai attack occurred on 5 August 2012, when armed men ambushed an Egyptian military base in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 16 soldiers and stealing two armored cars, which they used to infiltrate into Israel. The attackers broke through the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Israel, where one of the vehicles exploded. They then engaged in a firefight with soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), during which six of the attackers were killed. No Israelis were injured.
Hisham Al Saedni, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Walid al-Maqdisi, was a Palestinian military activist and a Muslim leader and founding member of the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem in the Gaza Strip and he was also leader of al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad, a branch of al-Qaeda in Gaza.
Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, or Ansar Al-Quds, was an Islamist jihadist, extremist terrorist group based in Sinai from 2011 to 2014.
The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, also known as Islamic State in Gaza, was an Islamist militant group affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant that was reportedly active in the Gaza Strip around 2015. Its goals have consistently matched those of the Islamic State, in that it seeks to establish the al-Sham caliphate. As such, it opposes all forms of Palestinian nationalism while also supporting the elimination of all Jews and other ethno-religious 'infidels' from the region.
Al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula, or AQSP, was an Egyptian militant jihadist organization possibly formed by a merger between al-Qaeda operatives in Sinai and Ansar al Jihad. It was Al-Qaeda's branch in the Sinai peninsula, and is composed of many Al-Qaeda factions in the area. AQSP made international headlines in November 2014 when the organization pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) in a nine-minute audio speech released on Twitter.
Jaysh al-Ummah al-Salafi fi Bayt al-Maqdis, also known as Jaysh al-Ummah fi Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis or simply Jaysh al-Ummah, is a small Palestinian Salafi jihadist militant organization based in the Gaza Strip. The group is supportive of al-Qaeda and critical of Hamas.
Masada al-Mujahideen was a Palestinian terrorist organization associated with Al-Qaeda operating within the Gaza Strip.
A number of Islamist groups opposed to Hamas have had a presence in the Gaza Strip, a part of the Palestinian territories. These groups began appearing in the Gaza Strip in the months leading up to and following the Israeli disengagement from the region in 2005 and have maintained a presence even after the 2007 Battle of Gaza, when Hamas wrestled control of the Gaza Strip from its rival Fatah, establishing its own de facto government in the area.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (since 2014)
