Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Abdelhamid Abaaoud
Abdelhamid Abaaoud
Born	8 April 1987 (age 39); Anderlecht, Brussels, Belgium
Died	18 November 2015 (aged 28); Saint-Denis, Paris, France
Other names	Abu Omar Soussi, Abu Omar al-Baljīkī
Occupation	Islamic extremist
Known for	Orchestrating November 2015 Paris attacks

Abdelhamid Abaaoud (; 8 April 1987 – 18 November 2015) was a Belgian-born Islamic extremist who spent time in Syria and was believed to have orchestrated several terrorist attacks in Belgium and France, most notably the November 2015 Paris attacks. Prior to these attacks, an international arrest warrant had been issued for Abaaoud due to his role in recruiting individuals for Islamic terrorism in Syria.

He was also identified by the aliases Abu Omar Soussi (, referring to his Moroccan heritage) and Abu Omar al-Baljīkī (, which translates as Abu Omar the Belgian).

Abaaoud succumbed to injuries sustained during a police operation in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris.

Early life

Born on 8 April 1987 in Anderlecht, Brussels, Belgium, Abdelhamid was one of six siblings. His father, Omar Abaaoud, emigrated from Morocco to Belgium in 1975, initially working in mining before establishing himself as a shopkeeper.

Abaaoud was raised in Molenbeek, Brussels, an area noted for the emergence of radical Salafi influences among some youth. Between 1999 and 2000, he attended the selective . Friends from his childhood recounted that he used cannabis frequently during his teenage years.

In December 2010, both Abaaoud and Salah Abdeslam were detained for attempting to break into a parking facility. Abdelhamid served time in at least three prisons and faced multiple arrests for assault and other offenses, although detailed information on these incidents remains undisclosed. Before 2013, he engaged in trade by working alongside his father.

In 2013, Abaaoud recruited his younger brother Younes, then aged 13, to join him in Syria. They departed on 19 January 2014; Abdelhamid was later convicted of abduction related to this act and had previously been found guilty of robbery. On 24 January 2018, during the trial of Jawad Bendaoud, Younes was declared deceased in a conflict zone between Iraq and Syria.

Earlier jihadist activities

During the 2013 conflict against Bashar al-Assad, Abaaoud affiliated with an ISIL faction called al-Battar Katiba before returning to Belgium by the end of that year. In 2014, journalists captured footage of him near the Syria–Turkey border loading corpses onto a truck while articulating extremist views. He operated in Hraytan, Syria, where entries from his diary disclosed his violent intentions.

Phone records connected Abaaoud with Mehdi Nemmouche in January 2014; Nemmouche later perpetrated an attack killing four people at Brussels' Jewish Museum. Belgian authorities suspect Abaaoud of organizing and funding a terrorist cell based in Verviers, which was dismantled in January 2015 during a raid that resulted in the deaths of two members. In an interview published by IS’s Dabiq magazine, Abaaoud claimed leadership of this Belgian cell prior to fleeing back to Syria. He was subsequently sentenced in absentia to twenty years imprisonment for terrorism-related charges.

In February 2015, Dabiq highlighted Abaaoud’s declared intention to combat Western "crusaders." Investigations linked him to four out of six thwarted French attacks since spring 2015, including the attempted church attack in Villejuif in April and the August Thalys train shooting.

Following his death, France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve indicated intelligence reports suggested Abaaoud had traveled through Greece while returning from Syria; however, Greek authorities found no confirmation of this movement. Cazeneuve also affirmed that no European Union countries detected his re-entry from Syria.

Paris assaults and demise

By 16 November 2015, French and Belgian intelligence agencies had identified Abdelhamid Abaaoud as the prime suspect orchestrating the Paris attacks. On 18 November, security forces conducted a raid in the Saint-Denis district of Paris targeting Abaaoud, which resulted in three fatalities—including his own—five officers wounded, and numerous arrests. The intervention was initiated after authorities traced Hasna Ait Boulahcen, an associate of Abaaoud, to the apartment where he was found.

Although Abaaoud’s body was extensively damaged by gunfire and a grenade blast, identification was confirmed through fingerprint and skin tissue examination. Additionally, his fingerprints were discovered on an AK-47 weapon left in an abandoned vehicle. Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s Interior Minister, declared that Abaaoud had a "decisive role" in executing the Paris attacks and was implicated in four out of six thwarted terror schemes since spring 2015. The French prosecutor further disclosed that Abaaoud had planned a subsequent attack targeting La Défense, a prominent business hub in Paris.

UK’s West Midlands Police retrieved nearly 50 videos and photographs from Abaaoud’s mobile device, featuring images of Birmingham’s Bull Ring shopping centre alongside other UK sites. Despite being wanted by Belgian authorities, he had entered the United Kingdom through Dover in August 2015.

Links to other jihadists

Abdelhamid Abaaoud was incarcerated alongside Salah Abdeslam in Belgium. He maintained connections with Sharia4Belgium and was considered by counter-terrorism experts to have close ties to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, thereby linking IS leadership in Syria with European terrorist networks. Furthermore, he was associated with Charaffe al Mouadan, an IS operative who was killed in December 2015.

On 5 December, officials confirmed that Abaaoud maintained two contacts within the Bordesley Green and Alum Rock neighborhoods of Birmingham, England.

Bibliography

E. Dearden - Article The Independent 25 May 2017

External links