Database: Identifiers of Designated Islamic Terrorist Organizations

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

Designation Status (as of October 12, 2026)

US State Dept FTO	Listed al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly Salafist Group for Call and Combat) since March 27, 2002
US Treasury OFAC SDN (SDGT)	Listed SALAFIST GROUP FOR CALL AND COMBAT
UK Proscribed	Listed Salafist Group for Call and Combat (Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat) (GSPC) since March 2001
EU Terrorist Lists	Listed The Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb
Canada Listed Entities	Listed Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) since July 23, 2002
Australia Listed	Listed Al-Qa’ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) since November 14, 2002

Official lists as of October 12, 2026. Listing names are quoted as the list gives them. What changed since 2018

Profile written 2014 The profile below is the original Jihad Intel text and has not been updated. Designation status above is current.

Designated as terrorist by: Australia, Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States

Base of operations: Algeria, Mali

Background: National Counterterrorism Center
Background: Council on Foreign Relations

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) got its start in 1998 as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which split from the Armed Islamic Group that fought a guerilla war against the Algerian government in the 1990s. It took its current name in 2007 after formally merging with al-Qaeda, with which it shares the goals of cleansing North Africa of Western influence and instituting Islamic law. AQIM has attacked Algerian military and government targets, the UN offices in Algiers, and the Israeli embassy in Mauritania. It has killed Westerners in the region, including American aid worker Christopher Leggett in 2009. An AQIM splinter group was responsible for the bloody seizure of an Algerian natural gas plant in 2013. Around the same time, AQIM and others tried to grab large chunks of northern Mali but were pushed back by French intervention. It has been speculated that AQIM was tied to the terrorists who assaulted the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, killing four Americans.

AQIM released a statement in late June 2014 declaring support for the Islamic State-spearheaded insurgent gains in Iraq but in the following month rejected the Islamic State's caliphate declaration.