Vanguards of Conquest

Founded as a branch of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1993, the Vanguards of Conquest (Talaa'al al-Fateh) were a separate faction that eventually folded back into the group under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri.

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, and three months later a similar bombing aimed at Prime Minister Atef Sedki, which killed a teenage girl at a bus stop. In June 1995, they again launched a failed attack against President Hosni Mubarak.

The leader of the Vanguards was believed to be Kamel Agiza, and Canadian officials allege that Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub was his second-in-command.

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.

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.

Translation of "Vanguards of Conquest"

French: Avant-garde de la conquête.