AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW family connections existing between network members. These later solidified as a result of involvement in the same extremist circles in Europe or contact in Syria and formed the backbone of the terrorist network behind the attacks. In addition to the close family ties that saw the Abdeslam brothers and el-Bakraoui brothers work together on the attacks, two of the central figures in the plots, Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Salah Abdeslam, had 1335 been childhood friends, and had become involved in criminality together from a young age. Despite Abdeslam not traveling to Syria or becoming involved with the extremist networks Abaaoud had associated with before travelling, the connection between the two men was enough that Abaaoud was able to recruit him to play a logistical role in the Paris attacks he was planning. Mohamed Abrini, meanwhile, who was caught on CCTV just north of Paris with Abdeslam and a car used in the attacks had lived in the 1336 same area as the Abdeslam brothers and Abaaoud and was a close childhood friend of Salah 1337 Abdeslam. Abrini would go on to play a role in the Brussels attacks as well, connecting with other Brussels-based extremists in the process. One of these, bomb-maker and airport suicide bomber Najim 1338 Laachraoui, had also become involved with the Zerkani network before connecting with Abaaoud in 1339 Syria. Another figure allegedly involved in the Brussels attacks, airport worker Youssef El Ajmi, is 1340 reported to have been a childhood friend of Khalid el-Bakraoui. As well as these personal connections, Abaaoud also exploited a wider family relationship, calling his cousin, Hasna Aitboulahcen, as he sought to hide from the police and asking her “to find him a hideout and spare shoes and clothes”, as well as sheltering with her while he was hiding from the authorities 1341 alongside Chakib Akrouh. Like Abaaoud, Akrouh had grown up near the Abdeslam brothers in 1342 Molenbeek and become associated with the Zerkani network before travelling to Syria. Similar family connections also straddle the plots and networks involved, with Lazez Abraimi, who is alleged to have 1343 driven Salah Abdeslam to Brussels after the Paris attacks, the younger brother of Noureddine Abraimi, 1344 who allegedly provided logistical support to Abaaoud as part of the Verviers cell. Senior Zerkani network member Fatima Aberkan’s nephew, Abid Aberkan, also appears to have been involved in 1345 sheltering those involved in the attacks. Described as “a distant cousin” of Abdeslam’s, he appears to have provided Abdeslam and Soufiane Ayari with a place to hide at his mother’s house, where the two 1346 men were eventually arrested. As a result of the extent of these long-term personal connections between members of the network, it also appears the network was also able to establish a relationship with areas of Brussels like Molenbeek, which may have provided the terrorist network with a more benign area in which to operate. Mohammed Abrini, the Abdeslam brothers and Abdelhamid Abaaoud all grew up in the same neighbourhood in 1347 1348 Molenbeek, while the el-Bakraoui brothers grew up in nearby Laeken and Najim Laachraoui grew ! ! 1335 ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016. 1336 ‘Factbox: The hunt for the Paris attackers’, Reuters, 24 December 2015. 1337 ‘Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam ‘had planned to target Brussels’, Guardian, 20 March 2016. 1338 Blaise, L. and Aurelien Breeden, ‘Najim Laachraoui, 24, Bomb Maker for Paris and Brussels Attacks’, International New York Times, 25 March 2016; ‘Belgian court sentences jihadist recruiter to 15 years in prison’, France 24, 14 April 2016. 1339 ‘How Islamic State Infiltrated Europe’, The Wall Street Journal, 1 April 2016. 1340 ‘Attentats a Bruxelles: la detention de Youssef El Ajmi prolongee’, La Libre, 8 July 2016. 1341 ‘Paris attacks: ‘I exposed Abaaoud’ says witness’, BBC News, 4 February 2016, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35491902, last visited: 9 August 2016. 1342 Drozdiak, N. and Matthias Verbergt, ‘Paris-Attack Suspect Traveled to Syria in 2013’, The Wall Street Journal, 15 January 2016. 1343 Dalton, M., ‘Investigators Home In on Scope of Terror Network Behind Brussels, Paris Attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 4 April 2016. 1344 ‘Factbox: The hunt for the Paris attackers’, Reuters, 24 December 2015. 1345 ‘Captured Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam says he planned more attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 21 March 2016. 1346 ‘Brussels attacks: Have blunders hampered Belgian investigation?’ BBC News, 15 April 2016. 1347 ‘Factbox: The hunt for the Paris attackers’, Reuters, 24 December 2015. 1348 ‘Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui: From Bank Robbers to Brussels Bombers’, International New York Times, 24 March 2016. ! ! 104 !