Jundallah (Iran)

Jundallah (Iran)
جندالله
Insignia of Jundallah
Leaders	Abdolmalek Rigi  Muhammad Dhahir Baluch
Dates of operation	2003–2011[1][2]
Active regions	Sistan and Baluchestan Province
Ideology	Anti-Shia[3] Baloch nationalism Salafi Jihadism
Size	700[4][5]–2,000[6]
Allies	Allegedly (see below):  al-Qaeda
Opponents	Iran
Battles and wars	2007 Zahedan bombings 2009 Zahedan bombing 2009 Pishin bombing 2010 Zahedan bombings 2010 Chabahar suicide bombing
Designated as a terrorist group by	Iran  Japan  New Zealand  United Kingdom  United States[7]
Succeeded by Jaish ul-Adl[8] Harakat Ansar Iran[9]

Jundallah (Arabic: جندالله, lit. 'Soldiers of God'), also known as the People's Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI^[10][11]), was a Sunni Salafi militant organization^{[1][12][13][14]} based in Sistan and Baluchestan, a province in southeast Iran. The group shared its name with another Baloch group active in Pakistani Balochistan as part of the same insurgency, that claims to be fighting for the "equal rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran".^{[4][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]}

The organization was founded by Abdolmalek Rigi, an ethnic Baloch who was captured and executed at Evin Prison in Tehran in 2010.^[16] It was believed to have between 700^[4] and 2,000 fighters.^[6] Jundallah commanders claim the group had killed up to 400 Iranian soldiers.^[23]

Jundallah had been officially designated as a terrorist organization by Iran, Japan,^[24] New Zealand^[25] and the United States.^[26][27] The U.S. Department of State says, “Jundallah, which was designated as an FTO and SDGT in 2010, began using the new name Jaysh al-Adl and associated aliases in 2012.”^[10][28] It has been linked to and taken credit for numerous acts of terror, kidnappings and the smuggling of narcotics. According to many sources, the group was linked to al-Qaeda.^[29][30][31]