Brothers In Arms: The Story of al-Qa'ida and the Arab Jihadists

"Meticulously researched debut" - Publishers Weekly

"An excellent source for anyone interested in the region." - New York Journal of Books

"Brothers in Arms sheds a clear and indispensable—if troubling—light on a religious war that is far from over."—Michael F. Scheuer, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit and professor of security studies, Georgetown University

"Camille Tawil delivers a carefully reported assessment of al Qaeda and its affiliated Arab jihadist groups."—Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc.

Since 2001 America's War on Terror has achieved what Osama bin Laden could not: the unification of the jihad under al-Qa'ida's banner. Although today al-Qa'ida is seen as the epitome of jihad, when it first emerged other militant Islamists rejected its vision of a holy war against the West.

Investigative journalist Camille Tawil charts the history of conflict and complicity between al-Qa'ida and its brothers in arms from the late 1980s to the present day. Drawing on a network of contacts in Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, he shows how the failure of their separate national struggles brought them increasingly under the influence of Osama bin Laden and his global agenda.

From prison cells in Morocco to the caves of Tora Bora, Tawil gives us unique access to the key players behind the jihadist movement and the evolution of its violent ideology.

Born in 1965, Camille Tawil is a Lebanese writer and investigative journalist. He has covered Islamic militant groups for al-Hayat Arabic daily in London since the early 1990s.