Islamic Liberation Army of Spain (Napoleon's World)

The Islamic Liberation Army of Spain (Span: Ejército de Liberación Islámico de España) (ELIA) is a now-defunct paramilitary organization operating in Spain from the 1960s through the early 1990s. ELIA was a radical anti-communist, separatist and religious fundamentalist organization that advocated for the downfall of the Spanish Communist government and for Spanish Africa to separate and form an Islamic state independent of European influence, which would include the violent removal of European settlers from North African soil. The group carried out terrorist bombings, assassinations and guerilla campaigns in the Altas Mountains and remained a significant thorn in the side of both local authorities and the Communist government. The organization is well-known for assassinating Spanish head-of-state Julio Álvarez del Vayo on February 2, 1970 in Madrid.

Declassified CIA documents reveal that the United States and, to a lesser extent, Portugal were actively supplying and funding ELIA activities during the 1970s and into the 1980s under both Nationalist and Democratic administrations.