| On April 24, 1999,
newly elected Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took office
making national reconciliation his priority. He negotiated a deal
with the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), the military wing of the
outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), offering a government amnesty
of jailed AIS fighters in return for an AIS cease-fire. Bouteflika
pledged that militants active in networks supporting armed groups
would be freed but not "authors of blood crimes, rapes and terrorism."
On June 5, the AIS announced it was calling a halt to its fight
against the Algerian government.
As part of the amnesty
deal, the FIS has also pledged to help the government combat the
more radical Islamic extremist factions, in particular the Armed
Islamic Group (GIA), responsible for most of the grisly massacres
against Algerian civilians. And, several days following the cease-fire
announcement, the AIS stormed a GIA base in Algeria's eastern
province of Jijel and captured its field commander and several
other armed militants.
The Algerian government
claimed victory against the GIA in April 1999 when security forces
killed senior GIA leader Abdel Kader Rahmouni along with 18 other
GIA members and seized weapons and 220 explosives. Rahmouni is
believed to be the top lieutenant of GIA head Antar Zouabri.
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