Mustapha Kartali

Male, Person

1946 –

11

Who is Mustapha Kartali?

Mustapha Kartali was the main Islamist guerrilla leader in the Larbaa region during the Algerian Civil War.

Born in 1946, he was elected FIS mayor of Larbaa, a town south of Algiers, in 1991. After the military banned FIS, he joined the Armed Islamic Group's guerrillas in fighting the government, becoming an emir. In late 1995, however, he left it - motivated, he claims, by its atrocities, and objecting to the new leadership of Djamel Zitouni.

On July 21, 1996, he announced the creation of a new organization - the Islamic Movement for Preaching and Jihad - uniting ex-GIA dissidents with the Movement for an Islamic State and Islamic Front for Armed Jihad; in the announcement, he condemned both the GIA and the AIS. His area of influence was around Larbaa, up to about Meftah and Tablat; at one point, his group is said to have numbered about 300. The government put a price on his head of 3 million dinars. In 1996, his son was arrested, and disappeared.

He eventually aligned himself with the FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, becoming the head of its Katibat Errahmane brigade. GIA efforts to take revenge on him for his desertion have been advanced as a possible motive for the Si-Zerrouk massacre, the Djiboulo massacre, and the Larbaa market bombing around Larbaa. El Watan mistakenly reported on February 23, 1997, that his corpse had been found; however, he was in fact alive.

We need you!

Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!

Born
1946

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Mustapha Kartali." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/mustapha_kartali>.

Discuss this Mustapha Kartali biography with the community:

0 Comments

    Browse Biographies.net