Hassan Hattab was the leader and founder of the Algerian Islamist rebel group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

Born in Rouiba on January 14, 1967, he trained as a paratrooper in his national service, in the course of which he met his future lieutenants Amari Saïfi and Abbi Abdelaziz . After leaving the army in 1989, he became a mechanic. He joined the most radical of the Islamist guerrilla movements, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), after the cancellation of the 1992 elections. In 1994, he became "amir", or chief, in charge of what it called the "second zone", the Kabylie region. As such, he notably was the signer of the document announcing that the GIA had assassinated the anti-religious Kabyle singer Lounes Matoub.

He broke with the GIA on September 14, 1998, rejecting its takfirist policy of massacring Algerian civilians en masse and accusing it of being infiltrated by the Algerian secret services. His group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, 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 . It soon eclipsed the GIA as the latter was torn apart by internal purges and army victories. However, at some point after 2001 he lost his leadership position; by October 23, 2003, Nabil Sahraoui had taken over the group.

A "repentant" ex-member reported that he was killed by his own organization in summer 2003 (L'Expression). However, the GSPC itself claims that he simply resigned (interview). On February 9, 2005, the GSPC announced that it had excluded him 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 might have been exaggerated.