Islamic Jihad

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This article is about particular organizations known as Islamic Jihad. For the general Islamic idea of jihad as a "holy war," see Jihad.

Islamic Jihad (Arabic: Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami) is a militant Islamist group based in the Syrian capital, Damascus. See: Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad is also a name used by various other militant groups. Since 1983, when a group calling itself "Islamic Jihad" claimed the April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, it has been used by several other organizations. Hezbollah is believed to have used the name in the 1980s to claim responsibiliy for attacks in Lebanon, parts of the Middle East, and Europe. There is also the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Yemeni Islamic Jihad.

In the Western world, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is the organization usually meant by the term "Islamic Jihad", due to the widespread media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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