AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 126 127 SOUFIANE AYARI aka Amine Choukri aka Monir Ahmed Alaaj Role: Believed to have been planning a shooting attack with Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Belkaid to 128 accompany the Brussels attacks. Bio: Little is known about Ayari, who was arrested in Molenbeek on 18 March 2016 alongside Salah 129 Abdeslam, but it is claimed he has connections with extremists in Germany. Using false names and identity papers he was able to evade detection as he crossed Europe from Syria. He gave the name Monir 130 Ahmed Alaaj when stopped alongside Abdeslam in Ulm in October 2015. Ayari was with Abdeslam 131 when he escaped from a flat in Forest raided by the police on 15 March and gave another false name, 132 Amine Choukri, when the two were arrested. Foreign training/combat: Ayari is believed to have travelled into Europe from Syria, though details of his 133 activity in Syria are unspecified. Movements: Believed to have travelled into Europe from Syria via Greece. He was stopped in October 134 2015 with Salah Abdeslam and Osama Krayem in Ulm, Germany. Criminal history: Unknown. Known to the authorities: Unknown. Networks and associates: Brussels attacks (March 2016): -! Osama Krayem [Stopped in October 2015 with Osama Krayem 135 in Ulm, Germany]. -! Paris attacks (November 2015): Salah Abdeslam [Stopped alongside Abdeslam in Ulm, 136 Germany, in October 2015. Ayari was with Abdeslam when he escaped from a flat in Forest 137 138 raided by the police on 15 March and arrested alongside Abdeslam]. Other: 139 -! Abid Aberkan [Described as the “landlord” of Salah Abdeslam and Ayari]; Mohammed Belkaid [Ayari escaped from the apartment in Forest during the police raid in which Belkaid was 140 killed. Ayari, Belkaid and Abdeslam are believed to have been planning a shooting attack to 141 accompany the Brussels attacks]. ! ! 126 ‘La galaxie djihadistes: Sofiane Ayari, alias “Amine Choukri”’, Le Parisien, available at: http://atelier.leparisien.fr/galaxie-djihadiste/profil/sofiane-ayari-2C-alias- lamine-choukrir/P131, last visited: 9 August 2016. 127 ‘How are the Brussels attackers linked to Paris?’ France 24, 21 April 2016. 128 ‘Suspects linked to the Paris, Brussels attacks’, Reuters, 8 April 2016. 129 Whitehead, T. and Colin Freeman, ‘Brussels explosions: The Isil terror cell that spread across Europe’, The Telegraph, 22 March 2016, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/12201703/brussels-explosions-isil-terror-cell-spreads-across-Europe.html, last visited: 9 August 2016; ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016. 130 ibid. 131 Verberght, M. et al., ‘Salah Abdeslam, Paris Attacks Suspect, Captured in Belgian Raid’, The Wall Street Journal, 18 March 2016. 132 Whitehead, T. and Colin Freeman, ‘Brussels explosions: The Isil terror cell that spread across Europe’, The Telegraph, 22 March 2016; ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016; and ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016. 133 ‘How are the Brussels attackers linked to Paris?’ France 24, 21 April 2016. 134 ibid. 135 ibid. 136 ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016. 137 Verberght, M. et al., ‘Salah Abdeslam, Paris Attacks Suspect, Captured in Belgian Raid’, The Wall Street Journal, 18 March 2016. 138 Whitehead, T. and Colin Freeman, ‘Brussels explosions: The Isil terror cell that spread across Europe’, The Telegraph, 22 March 2016; ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016. 139 ‘Abid Aberkan reste en détention préventive’, 7 Sur 7, 25 March 2016, available at: http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/36487/Attentats-a- Bruxelles/article/detail/2657803/2016/03/25/Abid-Aberkan-reste-en-detention-preventive.dhtml, last visited: 9 August 2016. 140 Verberght, M. et al., ‘Salah Abdeslam, Paris Attacks Suspect, Captured in Belgian Raid’, The Wall Street Journal, 18 March 2016. 141 ‘Suspects linked to the Paris, Brussels attacks’, Reuters, 8 April 2016. ! ! 16 !