The Vanguards of Conquest (Talaa'al al-Fateh) is a terrorist organization that was originally founded in 1993 as a branch of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad operating in Somalia but became a separate faction that eventually folded back into the group under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri. [1] The revived group is currently led by Magdy Salem. [2] The group has intervened to stop jihadis in the Sinai Peninsula from attacking Israel. [3]
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, [4] and three months later a similar bombing aimed at Prime Minister Atef Sedki, which killed a teenage girl at a bus stop. [5]
In late May 1995, Hassan al-Turabi met with Ayman al-Zawahiri to discuss the future of the Vanguards of Conquest; now to operate solely out of Egypt. [6] al-Zawahiri and Mstafa Hamzah organised a meeting in Ferney-Voltaire on the French-Swiss border, attended by a colleague of Tal'at Fu'ad Qasim, an associate of Showqi Al-Islambouli and the son of Said Ramadan. [6] The group decided to focus their efforts on Addis Ababa, and that their veteran members would come together under the leadership of Islambouli. [6]
In June 1995, they launched a failed attack against President Hosni Mubarak. [7]
The leader of the Vanguards was believed to be Kamel Agiza, and Canadian officials allege that Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub was his second-in-command. [8]
In December 1998, the Vanguards of Conquest issued a communique to Islamist groups calling for attacks against the United States "for its arrogance" in bombing Iraq ostensibly to distract from the Monica Lewinsky scandal. [9] [10]
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. [11]