"The Al Mulathamun Battalion (AMB), also known as the Those Who Sign in Blood Brigade, was a Salafi-Jihadist militant organization that operated in the Sahel region of North-West Africa. The group was founded in December 2012 when Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his battalion broke away from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The AMB still swore allegiance to Al Qaeda (AQ) leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and claimed to act in AQ’s name; however, the group was never formally recognized by AQ. The AMB gained international notoriety for its large-scale attacks, including most famously its January 2013 attack on the In Amenas natural gas facility in Algeria that killed 69 civilians. Partially as a result of this attack, the U.S. Department of State designated the AMB as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2013. The AMB often coordinated attacks with the Mouvement pour l’Unification et le Jihad en Afrique de l’Ouest (MUJAO). In August 2013, the AMB merged with MUJAO to form Al Mourabitoun." From Stanford