Militant group Jamaat al-Tawhid and Jihad (Monotheism and Jihad), which is currently holding two Americans and a British citizen hostage in Iraq, has been a fighting force in Iraq for more than a year. However, an uptick in the group's activities — or at least the actions to which it lays claim — over the past several months indicates a sense of urgency to act before a new government is formed that could endanger its ability to shelter in Iraq. Jamaat al-Tawhid and Jihad has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, including the bombing of a shrine in An Najaf in August 2003 that killed Ayatollah Baqir al-Hakim, the bombing of United Nations headquarters in Baghdad the same month, and the assassination of Izz al-Deen Saleem, who was president of the Iraqi Governing Council, in May 2004.