Jund al-Khilafah

Jund al-Khilafah (JaK) is a Salafist militant group based in Algeria that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and establish a strict Sunni caliphate. In September 2014, Jund al-Khilafah split from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) because they believe that AQIM had “deviated from the true path.” The group then declared allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) in September 2014, stating that militants in JaK would obey the orders of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS. Almost immediately after this declaration, JaK threatened to behead a French citizen, Herve Gourdel, if the French government did not immediately halt air strikes on IS in Syria. The French government refused to comply, and JaK posted a video online of Gourdel’s beheading on September 24, 2014.