The invention relates to an internal combustion engine comprising a control unit (16), a combustion chamber (8) that is configured between a piston (5) and a cylinder head and a fuel injection device with an injection nozzle (13), which has a nozzle needle and several injection orifices. The injection nozzle injects fuel into the combustion chamber (8) in the form of several fuel jets (17) as a main injection (HE), an afterinjection (NE) and optionally a pre-injection (VE). The injection orifices of the injection nozzle (13) are arranged in at least two rows that can be separately controlled and an operating stroke of the nozzle needle can be set using the control unit in accordance with a piston position ( phi ) and/or with an operating point of the internal combustion engine (1). The rows of orifices of the injection nozzle (13) have different injection-orifice cone angles.
