Islamic Jihad Group (Uzbekistan) -- Splinter Group

<a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=AF">Afghanistan</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=IR">Iran</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=KZ">Kazakhstan</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=KG">Kyrgyzstan</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=PK">Pakistan</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=TI">Tajikistan</a>, <a href="terrorist_organizations_by_country.asp?id=UZ">Uzbekistan</a>

IMU received money from Usama bin Laden, safe have from the Taliban, and profits from drug trafficking trade between Afghanistan and Central Asia

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was formed in 1998 with the objective to create an Islamist state in Uzbekistan.  In the following years, the terrorist organization expanded its goals, and now aims to create an Islamist state across Central Asia, in an area sometimes referred to as Turkistan.  The theoretical Islamist state would encompass Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and the Xinxiang province of China.  With this enlarged goal in mind, some members of the terrorist group began to refer to themselves as the Islamic Party of Turkistan.  <P><br /><br />IMU is comprised of Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and its Central Asian neighbors.  The group was co-founded by a mullah in the Islamic underground and a former Soviet soldier who served in the Soviet-Afghan war.  It was the co-founder's experience in fighting against the mujahidin in Afghanistan that eventually led him to radical Islam and an alliance with Osama bin Laden.  As the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan grew increasingly close to bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the group began to subscribe to the al-Qaeda ideology and objectives.  Therefore, IMU's attacks against Afghanistan's Northern Alliance on behalf of al-Qaeda and Taliban, as well as their increasingly broad objectives to create a regional Islamic state, can be traced to its involvement with bin Laden.  In return, IMU received money from bin Laden, safe have from the Taliban, and a hand in the drug trafficking trade between Afghanistan and Central Asia.