AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Zerkani network: 222 -! Khalid Zerkani, Gelel Attar [see above]; Ilias Mohammadi [An alleged member of the Zerkani network who returned from Syria to Belgium. Official documents state 223 that he was close to Akrouh]. -! Other: Hasna Aitboulahcen [Akrouh died alongside Hasna when an apartment was raided in search of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was also killed].224 BILAL HADFI Role: 225 Suicide bomber at the Stade de France during the Paris attacks. Bio: A 20-year-old French citizen, Hadfi lived in Needer-over-Heembeek, Belgium. He was raised in Belgium and schooled in Diest, 60km north-east of Brussels. After leaving school he is believed to have trained as an electrician. He is alleged to have become radicalised by an unnamed extremist Imam before 226 travelling to Syria, returning to Belgium and disappearing at some point in 2015. Foreign training/combat: Hadfi is believed to have been a member of Katibat al-Battar, an IS brigade 227 which included Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Under the aliases Abu Moudjahid Al-Belgiki and Bilal Al 228 Mouhajir, he fought in Syria in the spring of 2015. He appears alongside fellow Paris attacker Sami Amimour (aka Abu Qital al-Faransi) in an IS video, released after the Paris attacks, taking part in 229 beheadings. Movements: 230 Syria. Criminal history: No known criminal history. Known to the authorities: When he returned to Belgium he was being monitored by the Belgian 231 authorities, but disappeared. Network and associates: Paris attacks (November 2015): -! Abdelhamid Abaaoud [Abaaoud is suspected of being a member 232 of IS brigade Katibat al-Battar, of which Hadfi was also a member]; Salah Abdeslam, Brahim ! ! 222 ‘Khalid Zerkani, Brussels’ jihadist preacher who ‘perverted a generation’’, France 24, 26 March 2016. 223 Van Vlierden, G., ‘Belgium knew in 2012 already that Paris suspects were plotting attacks’, Emmejihad, 26 January 2016, available at: https://emmejihad.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/belgium-knew-in-2012-already-that-paris-suspects-were-plotting-attacks/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 224 Allen, P., ‘Female jihadi in Paris attacks died of 'asphyxiation', say prosecutors - as her family sue French police claiming she was murdered by police’, Daily Mail Online, 21 January 2016; and Fenwick, J., ‘Paris suicide bomber who killed Diesel the dog FINALLY named by police’, Express, 15 January 2016, available at: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/634883/isis-islamic-state-Abdelhamid-Abaaoud-paris-saint-denis-Cahokia-Akrouh-Hasna-Aitboulahcen, last visited: 9 August 2016. 225 Farmer, B. et al., ‘Who is Salah Abdeslam and who were the Paris terrorists? Everything we know about the Isil attackers’, The Telegraph, 18 March 2016. 226 ibid. 227 Gauthier-Villars, D. et al., ‘Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Alleged Ringleader of Paris Attacks, Was ‘Emir of War’ in Syria’, The Wall Street Journal, 19 November 2015. 228 Farmer, B. et al., ‘Who is Salah Abdeslam and who were the Paris terrorists? Everything we know about the Isil attackers’, The Telegraph, 18 March 2016. 229 Rothwell, J. and Josie Ensor, ‘Isil releases beheading video featuring Paris attackers’, The Telegraph, 24 January 2016, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/12119003/Isil-releases-new-beheading-video-featuring-Paris-attackers.html; Sommers, J., ‘Islamic State Propaganda Video Features Paris Attackers Bilal Hadfi And Samy Amimour’, The Huffington Post, 25 January 2016, available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/25/islamic-state-propaganda-_n_9067142.html. Both last visited: 9 August 2016. 230 ibid. 231 Farmer, B. et al., ‘Who is Salah Abdeslam and who were the Paris terrorists? Everything we know about the Isil attackers’, The Telegraph, 18 March 2016. 232 Van Vlierden, G., ‘PROFILE: PARIS ATTACK RINGLEADER ABDELHAMID ABAAOUD’, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 15 December 2015 ! ! 23 !