Full name: Al-Gama'at Al-Islamiyah, aka IG, aka Islamic Group
"Egypt's largest Islamist group, the IG evolved from the Islamist movement in Egypt's universities and has been active since the late 1960s. It is strongest in Cairo, Alexandria, and the country's southern provinces. The IG has attacked Egypt's Coptic Christians, Egyptian police, military, and security officials, and foreign tourists inside Egypt. It has a worldwide presence, and is especially strong in Western Europe, North and South America, the Persian Gulf countries, Yemen, the Balkans, and Caucasus, eastern and southern Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The IG has a large cadre of veteran insurgent fighters who have fought in Afghanistan, Central Asia, Chechnya, Kashmir, Sudan, and Bosnia. Generally, the IG's attacks are meant to cause large numbers of casualties, although its well-planned but unsuccessful 1995 attack on President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia shows it can operate with precision. The Gama'at's imprisoned leaders declared a cease-fire in 1997, a call that has caused debilitating and seeminly endless public debate, bickering, and name-calling among the multitude that identify themselves as "IG leaders."
~Definition found in Through Our Enemies' Eyes by Anonymous
Copyright 2002 by Brassey's Inc.
"The Gama’a has not conducted an attack inside Egypt since August 1998." http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/algama.htm
EIJ, or Egyptian Islamic Jihad, broke off from the IG after the appointment of Shaykh Omar Abd al-Rahman as spiritual leader of the IG. Osama bin Laden has worked to re-unite these groups in the past.
Check facts in:
Through Our Enemies' Eyes by Anonymous
Brassey's, Inc.
2002
http://www.brasseysinc.com