Brussels ISIL terror cell

The Brussels ISIL terror cell are a group of people who have been connected to large-scale attacks in Paris and Brussels, as well as other smaller scale terror attacks against European targets. The terror cell is connected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a jihadist terrorist organisation primarily based in Syria and Iraq and led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Background

Before those attacks, several other Islamist terrorist attacks had originated from Belgium, and a number of counter-terrorist operations had been carried out there. In 2014, a gunman with ties to the Syrian Civil War attacked the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, killing four people.[1][2] In January 2015, anti-terrorist operations against a group thought to be planning a second Charlie Hebdo shooting had included raids in Brussels and Zaventem. The operation resulted in the deaths of two suspects.[3][4] In August 2015, a suspected terrorist shot and stabbed passengers aboard a high-speed train on its way from Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels, before he was subdued by passengers.[5]

Belgium has more nationals fighting for jihadist forces as a proportion of its population than any other Western European country, with an estimated 440 Belgians having left for Syria and Iraq as of January 2015.[6][7] Due to Belgium's weak security apparatus and competing intelligence agencies, it has become a hub of jihadist-recruiting and terrorist activity.[8]

Main suspects

Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Main article: Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Abdelhamid Abaaoud (8 April 1987 – 18 November 2015) was a Belgian-Moroccan[9][10][11] Islamic terrorist, who had spent time in Syria, known as a place where radical groups operate and train.[12] He was suspected of having organized multiple terror attacks in Belgium and France, and is known to have masterminded in the November 2015 Paris attacks.[13] Prior to the Paris attacks, there was an international arrest warrant issued for Abaaoud for his activities in recruiting individuals to Islamic terrorism in Syria.[14]

Salah Abdeslam

Main article: Salah Abdeslam

Salah Abdeslam (born 15 September 1989) is a Belgian-born French national of Moroccan descent.[15][16] He is accused of involvement in the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, through providing logistical support for the assailants and driving them to their target locations.[15] He is thought to have been in charge of logistics for the group.[17]

Paris assailants

Nationalities of the terrorists[18]
Country Number from country
 France
5
 Belgium
2
 Iraq
2

Three teams, comprising three people each, executed the attacks.[18][19] They wore explosive vests and belts with identical detonators.[20] Seven perpetrators died at the scenes of their attacks.[21][22] The other two were killed five days later during the Saint-Denis police raid.

Three suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Stade de France:

Two men alongside Abdelhamid Abaaoud[35][23] are thought to have carried out the shootings at bars and restaurants in Paris:

Three other men attacked the Bataclan theatre using AKMs and took hostages.[36] Two blew themselves up when police raided the theatre. The third was hit by police gunfire and his vest blew up when he fell.[36] According to French police, they were:

Brussels suspects

Ibrahim El Bakraoui

Main article: Ibrahim El Bakraoui

Khalid El Bakraoui

Main article: Khalid El Bakraoui

Najim Laachraoui

Main article: Najim Laachraoui

Mohamed Abrini

Main article: Mohamed Abrini

Osama Krayem

Main article: Osama Krayem

Other suspects

November 2015 Paris attacks

On 14 November, a car was stopped at the Belgium–France border and its three occupants were questioned then released. Three more people were arrested in Molenbeek.[45] Links to the attacks were investigated in an arrest in Germany on 5 November, when police stopped a 51-year-old man from Montenegro and found automatic handguns, hand grenades and explosives in his car.[46]

On 15–16 November, French tactical police units raided over 200 locations in France, arresting 23 people and seizing weapons.[47] Another 104 people were placed under house arrest.[48][49]

On 17 November, police followed a cousin of the attacker and ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, to a block of flats in Saint-Denis where they saw Abaaoud with her.[50][51] Following a police raid on a flat in Saint-Denis during the next day, in which Abaaoud and restaurant shooter Chakib Akrouh died, which lasted several hours,[52][53][54][39] eight suspected militants were arrested at or near the flat.[55]

On 24 November, five people in Belgium had been charged on suspicion of their involvement in the Paris attacks, and Belgian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Mohamed Abrini, a 30-year-old suspected accomplice of Salah Abdeslam.[56] Abrini was subsequently reported to have been arrested on 8 April 2016. He is also suspected of having been involved in the bombings in Brussels four months later.[57]

A person involved in the attacks made phone calls to Birmingham, England, just prior to the day of the attacks.[58]

Fabien Clain

Main article: Fabien Clain

Fabien Clain (born ca. 1977/1978) was identified as the person who released an audio recording the day before the Paris attacks in which he personally claimed responsibility for the attacks. Clain is known to intelligence services as a veteran jihadist belonging to ISIL, and of French nationality.[59] A French national, he served 5 years from 2009 to 2014 in a French prison for recruiting fighters to go to Syria to join militant groups. Clain has been linked to other executed and planned terror attacks and is seen as a leader of known terrorists.[60]

Arrests during 2016 Brussels raids

On 15 March, police carried out a raid on a house in Forest, a suburb of Brussels, in relation to the November 2015 Paris attacks.[61][62] Four police officers were wounded in the raid,[63] while one suspect was killed.[64] The deceased suspect was identified as Mohamed Belkaid, a 35-year-old Algerian citizen.[65]

Three days later on 18 March, a second raid was conducted in the Molenbeek area of Brussels.[66] Five people, including Salah Abdeslam, three of Abdeslam's relatives, and Monir Ahmed Alaaj, were arrested. Abdeslam and Alaaj were both injured during the raid.[67][68][69][70][71]

2016 Brussels bombings

On 24 March, six people were arrested in police raids in Brussels, Jette and Schaerbeek, all in connection with the investigation into the bombings.[72]

As of 26 March, twelve men were arrested in connection with the bombings.[73] The same day, Belgian prosecutors charged Fayçal Cheffou, who had been detained two days prior in front of the Belgian prosecutor's office, with "terrorist murders, attempted murder relating to terror plots, and links to terror groups"; Cheffou was suspected of being the man on the right in the CCTV footage of the airport.[74] However, on 28 March, Cheffou was released due to a lack of evidence.[75]

On 27 March, an Algerian who was part of a counterfeiting ring that provided forged documents to the perpetrators in both the Paris and Brussels attacks was arrested in Italy. The Belgian government had issued a European Arrest Warrant for the man, who the ANSA news agency identified as 40-year-old Djamal Eddine Ouali on 6 January. Ouali's name emerged during searches carried out in October in the Saint-Gilles borough of Brussels, which yielded around 1,000 digital images that were being used to make false identity documents.[76]

Two men were detained on 25 March but later exonerated for suspected connections to the cell. The first, a 28-year-old failed, Moroccan, male asylum-seeker, was detained following a routine police check in Giessen, Germany, for being in contact with the Brussels attackers' immediate network.[77] He had an acquaintance with a similar name to Khalid El Bakraoui, and a text message with the word "fin" was found on his cell phone; the "fin" was initially interpreted as "the end" in French, though it turned out to be the word "where" transcribed from Arabic language. The second man, identified only as Samir E., was arrested in Düsseldorf, Germany, in connection with the bombings.[78]

Planned terrorist activities

The cell initially planned to launch a second assault on Paris following the November 2015 attacks there. However, they chose to rush an attack on Brussels after being surprised by the progress of the French investigation.[79]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Casert, Raf (25 May 2014). "Belgium ramps up security for lone suspect in Jewish Museum attack". The Globe and the Mail. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Brussels Jewish Museum killings: Man held in Marseille". BBC News. 1 June 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Belgian anti-terror raid in Verviers 'leaves two dead'". BBC News. 15 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "Belgian counterterrorism raid in Verviers leaves 2 dead, report says". CBC News. 15 January 2015.
  5. ↑ "France train shooting: Three hurt and man arrested". BBC News. 22 August 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Nina Elbagir; Bharati Nailk; Laila Ben Allal (22 March 2016). "Belgium: Europe's front line in the war on terror". CNN. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Neumann, Peter. "Foreign fighter total in Syria/Iraq now exceeds 20,000; surpasses Afghanistan conflict in the 1980s". ICSR. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  8. ↑ "How Belgium Became a Jihadist-Recruiting Hub". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "Who is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the so-called brain behind the events of Paris?" (in French). RT. 19 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015. Le terroriste présumé possède la double nationalité belge et marocaine - the terrorist is presumed possibly to have dual-nationality of Belgian and Moroccon)
  10. ↑ "Aide du Maroc pour trouver le Belgo-Marocain Abaaoud, le roi reçu par Hollande" [Morocco's help finding the Belgo-Moroccan Abaaoud, King received by Holland]. Le Point International. 19 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  11. ↑ "Saint-Denis: le renseignement marocain à l'origine de la localisation des terroristes" [Saint-Denis: Moroccan intelligence behind the location of terrorists]. RTBF. 18 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  12. ↑ McDonnell, Patrick J; Zavis, Alexandra (19 November 2015). "Suspected Paris attack mastermind's Europe ties facilitated travel from Syria". Los Angeles Times, in the Sacramento Bee (Los Angeles, USA). Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  13. ↑ "Suspected Mastermind of Paris Attacks Named". Sky News. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  14. ↑ "Paris attacks: Belgium has 'new information' on Salah Abdeslam". Financial Times. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Salah Abdeslam, Suspect in Paris Attacks, Is Captured in Brussels". The New York Times. 18 March 2016.
  16. ↑ "Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam's luck runs out". BBC News. 19 March 2016.
  17. ↑ "Paris attacks suspect Abdeslam 'caught on CCTV' in French petrol station". BBC News. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  18. 1 2 Alicia Parlapiano, Wilson Andrews, Haeyoun Park and Larry Buchanan (17 November 2015). "Finding the Links Among the Paris Attackers". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  19. ↑ Nossiter, Adam; Breeden, Aurelien; Bennhold, Katrin (14 November 2015). "Three Teams of Coordinated Attackers Carried Out Assault on Paris, Officials Say; Hollande Blames ISIS". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  20. ↑ Mozingo, Joe; Serrano, Richard A.; Chu, Henry; Finnegan, Michael (14 November 2015). "As Paris reels from night of terror, investigators seek origin of attackers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  21. ↑ Claire Phipps (15 November 2015). "Paris attacker named as Ismaïl Omar Mostefai as investigation continues – live updates". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  22. ↑ Love, Brian; Labbe, Chine (17 November 2015). Callus, Andrew; King, Larry, eds. "Factbox – Dead killers, hunted suspects after Paris attacks". Reuters. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015. list of some of the seven attackers who died [...] Ismail Omar Mostefai, 29 (born Nov. 21, 1985), Frenchman of Algerian descent involved in Bataclan concert hall attack [...] Samy Amimour, 28 (born Oct. 15, 1987), involved in Bataclan attack. French, from Drancy, Saint Denis, north of Paris [...] Brahim Abdeslam, 31 (born July 30, 1984),[...] French, resident of Belgium. Blew himself up at Comptoir Voltaire café in Paris. [...] Bilal Hadfi, 20 (born Jan 22, 1995). Involved in Stade de France attack. [...] Suicide bomber involved in Stade de France attack. Passport found beside dead body of kamikaze bomber carries name of Ahmad Al Mohammad, 25, (born Sept. 10 1990), from Idlib, northwest Syria.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Paris attacks: Who were the attackers?". BBC News. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  24. 1 2 3 4 "Ibrahim and Salah Abdeslam, Bilal Hadfi ID'd as Three of the Paris Terrorists". The Epoch Times. 15 November 2015.
  25. ↑ "Paris terrorist left clues on social media". Washington Times. 22 November 2015.
  26. ↑ "Holder of Syrian passport found near Paris gunman crossed Greece". Reuters.
  27. ↑ "Fingerprints from Paris bomber match man registered in Greece says prosecutor". Reuters. 16 November 2015.
  28. ↑ Buchanan, Rose Troup (14 November 2015). "Paris terror attacks: Syrian passport found on body of suicide bomber at Stade de France". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  29. ↑ Malnick, Edward (15 November 2015). "Paris terror attack: Everything we know so far on Sunday afternoon". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  30. ↑ "Prosecutor: 3 teams of extremists carried out attacks". CBS News. 14 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015. However, a U.S. intelligence official told CBS News the Syrian passport might be fake. The official said the passport did not contain the correct numbers for a legitimate Syrian passport and the picture did not match the name.
  31. ↑ "Police Conduct Raid Near Paris in Search for Planner of Attacks; 5 Arrested". The New York Times. 18 November 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015. The passport was probably stolen, and the identity on the passport page—Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, of Idlib, Syria—may be that of a dead Syrian soldier, the French official said.
  32. ↑ "Doubts about Syrian passport dropped by Paris attacker". DW. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015. Police in France have been trying to discern whether a passport used by one of the Paris suicide bombers was stolen from a dead Syrian soldier. Germany's interior minister has suggested it was a ploy to set up refugees.
  33. 1 2 "Paris attacks: Islamic State's Dabiq magazine identifies two Stade de France suicide bombers as Iraqis". International Business Times. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  34. ↑ "Paris attacks: BBC names Stade de France bomber as M al-Mahmod". BBC. 22 November 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  35. ↑ "Paris attacks' Adelhamid Abaaoud's village 'rejoiced' at hearing of his death". Mail Online. 20 November 2015.
  36. 1 2 3 Randolph, Eric and Simon Valmary (13 November 2015). "More than 120 people killed in Paris 'terror' attacks". Yahoo! News. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 14 November 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  37. ↑ On the run from Isis: Jihadists 'targeting Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam for chickening out of killings', Independent. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  38. ↑ "Paris Nurse unwittingly tried to save bomber Brahim Abdeslam". 20 November 2015.
  39. 1 2 "French identify another Paris attacker via DNA from body parts". reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  40. ↑ "Samy Amimour, kamikaze du Bataclan, faisait l'objet d'un mandat d'arrêt international". BFM TV. 15 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  41. ↑ "France begins to work out the identities of the Paris attackers". The Economist. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  42. ↑ "Paris attacks were carried out by three groups tied to Islamic State, official says". The Washington Post. 14 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  43. ↑ Safi, Michael (15 November 2015). "Paris attacks: severed finger found at Bataclan theatre identifies attacker". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  44. ↑ Amiel, Sandrine; Melvin, Don (9 December 2015). "Paris attacks: Third Bataclan bomber traveled to Syria in 2013, reports say". CNN. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  45. ↑ "Paris terror attacks: vigils held around the world as Parisians remain on edge – live updates". The Guardian. 14 November 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  46. ↑ "Bavaria arrest raises suspicions about links to Paris attacks". DW.COM. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  47. ↑ Doherty, Ben, Jon Henley, and Ian Traynor (16 November 2015). "Paris attacks: French police launch raids as military strikes Isis in Syria". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  48. ↑ "Terror in Paris: What we know so far". CNN. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  49. ↑ "Paris attacks: France mobilises 115,000 security personnel". BBC News. 17 November 2015.
  50. ↑ Thomas, Leigh; Bon, Gerard (21 November 2015). "Tapped phone led Paris attack leader to his death". Reuters UK (Thomson Reuters). Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  51. ↑ Samuel Osborne (20 November 2015). "Hasna Ait Boulahcen – Europe's first female suicide bomber – 'did not blow herself up'". The Independent. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  52. ↑ Anthony Faiola, Missy Ryan and Souad Mekhennet (18 November 2015). "Suspected architect of Paris attacks is dead, according to two senior intelligence officials". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  53. ↑ Anthony Faiola, Missy Ryan and Daniela Deane (18 November 2015). "Suspected architect of Paris attacks is dead, according to two senior intelligence officials". MSN. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  54. ↑ Reguly, Eric (19 November 2015). "Two dead, eight arrested after police raid Paris apartment in hunt for suspects". The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada). Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  55. ↑ "Hasna Aitboulahcen est morte dans l'assaut, mais elle n'était pas kamikaze" [Hasna Aitboulahcen died in the assault, but she was not a kamikaze]. lexpress.fr (in French). 20 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  56. ↑ "Hollande and Obama to intensify anti-IS push". BBC News. 24 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  57. ↑ "Paris attacks: 'Key suspect Abrini' arrested". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
  58. ↑ A. Joseph - article published by Daily Mail 4 December 2015 [Retrieved 2015-12-04]
  59. ↑ P. Cruickshank - published by CNN 4 December 2015 [Retrieved 2015-12-04]
  60. ↑ "Fabien Clain, la voix de l'État islamique" [Fabien Clain, the voice of the Islamic State]. MSN (in French).
  61. ↑ "Shots in Brussels raid tied to Paris attacks". CNN. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  62. ↑ "Gunfire in Brussels raid on 'Paris attacks suspects'". BBC News. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  63. ↑ Chrisafis, Angelique; Rankin, Jennifer (16 March 2016). "One suspect dead, at least one still at large after Brussels terror raid". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  64. ↑ "Brussels raid over Paris attacks: Dead gunman was Algerian national". BBC News. 16 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  65. ↑ "Dömdes till fängelse fyra gånger men utvisades inte – varför?". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  66. ↑ "'Shots fired' in new Brussels raids". BBC News. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  67. ↑ "Belgian police checking if man detained is Paris terror attack suspect". CNN. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  68. ↑ Chrisafis, Angelique (18 March 2016). "Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam arrested in Brussels terror raid". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  69. ↑ Kennedy, Merrit (18 March 2016). "Paris Attacks Suspect Salah Abdeslam Is Captured During Raid In Brussels". NPR. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  70. ↑ "Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam 'worth his weight in gold'". BBC News. 21 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  71. ↑ "Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam shot, arrested in Brussels raid". Russia Today. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  72. ↑ Emily Knapp; Meghan Keneally; Julia Jacobo (24 March 2016). "6 Arrested in Brussels Police Operation after French Raids Foil Planned Terror Attack". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  73. ↑ "Brussels attacks: Man charged with terrorist offences". BBC News. 26 March 2016.
  74. ↑ Nancy Ing; Alastair Jamieson; Cassandra Vinograd (26 March 2016). "Brussels Bombings: 'Faycal C' Faces Terror Charges". NBC News. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  75. ↑ Cassandra Vinograd (28 March 2016). "Brussels Attacks 'Suspect' Faycal Cheffou Freed Due to Lack of Evidence". NBC News. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  76. ↑ Lilia Blaise. "Italy Arrests Algerian Tied to Forgery in Paris and Brussels Attacks". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  77. ↑ Greg Botelho; Holly Yan; Frederik Pleitgen (25 March 2016). "Brussels attacks: Suspect wounded, arrested in Belgian police operation". CNN. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  78. ↑ "Verdacht gegen Männer erhärtet sich nicht". n-tv (in German). Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  79. ↑ Raphael Satter; Raf Casert (10 April 2016). "Officials: Group that hit Brussels planned 2nd France attack". Yahoo! News. Associated Press. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.