- Vanguards of Conquest
Founded as a branch of the
Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1993, the Vanguards of Conquest were a separate faction that eventually folded back into the group under the leadership ofAyman al-Zawahiri . [USIS Washington File, May 9, 2000, “US indicts suspects in East Africa Bombings”, pp 1-4.]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 , [“Al Jihad: Egypt’s second largest armed Islamic movement”,Agence France Presse , November 18, 1997, p. 1] and three months later a similar bombing aimed at Prime MinisterAtef Sedki , which killed a teenage girl at a bus stop. [“Jihad Group”, Milnet Terrorist Group Profiles, September 21, 1998, p. 1] In June 1995, they again launched a failed attack against PresidentHosni Mubarak . [Terrorist Incidents, Record #7632, Iterate “Ethiopia”, June 26, 1995, p. 1]The leader of the Vanguards was believed to be
Kamel Agiza , and Canadian officials allege thatMohammad Zeki Mahjoub was his second-in-command.Canadian Security Intelligence Service , Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub]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. [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]References
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