Islamic Jihad Organization

Islamic Jihad Organization
LeadersImad Mughniyeh
Dates of operationEarly 1983–1992
Merged into Hezbollah
HeadquartersBeirut and Baalbek
IdeologyPan-Islamism
Shia Islamism
Khomeinism
Jihadism
Anti-Zionism
Allies Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Islamic Dawa Party (IDP)
Opponents Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
South Lebanon Army (SLA)
Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF)
WarsLebanese Civil War

The Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO; French: Organisation du Jihad Islamique (OJI); Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي, romanizedḤarakat al-Jihād al-'Islāmiyy, lit.'Islamic Jihad Movement') was a Shia Lebanese militia known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War.

The organization, advocating for the withdrawal of all Americans from Lebanon, claimed responsibility for a number of kidnappings, assassinations, and bombings of embassies and peacekeeping troops which killed several hundred people. Their deadliest attacks were in 1983, when they carried out the bombing of the barracks of French and U.S. MNF peacekeeping troops, and that of the United States embassy in Beirut.

Adam Shatz described Islamic Jihad as "a precursor to Hezbollah, which did not yet officially exist" at the time of the bombing it took credit for.