The Battle for Algeria: Explaining Fratricide among Armed Nonstate Actors

Unity among a rebel movement is associated with positive returns, yet rebel groups often fail to come together and even fall into fratricide infighting. Focusing on a rebel field in which one group enjoys primacy, I present three pathways that are likely to produce rebel fratricide: first, power shifts within the rebel movement; second, spillover from internal conflict within the dominant group; and third, disagreements over targeting noncombatants. I explore the role these mechanisms played in fratricidal violence among the Islamist opposition in Algeria during the 1990s civil war.