[1] Later, he was trained as a paratrooper in his national service in the Algerian army,[2] in the course of which he met his future lieutenants Amari Saïfi and Abbi Abdelaziz.

This policy enabled the GSPC to build a larger support network than that of the GIA, making it Algeria's most significant Islamist movement.

[6] The GSPC was mainly active in the east of the country, notably in the forests of western Kabylie such as Mizrana, Boumehni, Sidi Ali Bounab, and Takhoukht.

[9] On 9 February 2005, the GSPC announced that it had excluded Hattab entirely from the group and saw him as a "stranger to jihad" and a "suppliant before tyranny", according to El Watan, thus further suggesting that previous rumors of his death were incorrect.

[3] In March 2011, then-Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz stated that Hassan Hattab had been put in a safe place, whereas Abderezzak El Para had been imprisoned.