AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 194 195 with police; Abaaoud successfully escaped back to Syria.]; Sid Ahmed Ghlam [Abaaoud has been connected to Ahmed Ghlam’s planned April 2015 attack on churches in the Villejuif and 196 Ayoub El Khazzani’s unsuccessful attack on an Amsterdam-Paris train in August 2015]; Reda 197 Hame [received weapons training from Abaaoud in Raqqa in June 2015] ; Nourreddine Abraimi [brother of Lazez Abraimi, who allegedly assisted Salah Abdeslam after the Paris attacks; 198 199 provided logistical support to the Verviers cell in January 2015]. BRAHIM ABDESLAM 200 Role: Suicide bomber in the Paris attacks, targeted the Comptoir Voltaire café. Bio: 201 Brahim, 31, an unemployed Brussels-born trained electrician, was married for two years and known 202 203 to be involved with drugs, with the bar he managed with his brother, Salah, shut down in 2015 in 204 connection with drug related activity. His brother, Mohamed, and friends have suggested he began to 205 change around six months before the attacks and have claimed he only recently became religious. Foreign training/combat: 206 His family claimed that he had spent a “long time” in Syria, though knowledge 207 of this was denied by his brother Mohamed. Movements: Unspecified. Criminal history: Brahim spent time in jail on two occasions, serving a three month and six month 208 sentence for theft, with one of these believed to relate to stealing Belgian ID cards. His bar was shut 209 210 down in 2015 in connection with drug-related activity, and he was involved with drug trafficking in his 211 teens. ! ! 194 Dearden, L., ‘Abdelhamid Abaaoud: What we know about Belgian man identified as suspected Paris attacks 'mastermind'’, Independent, 16 November 2015; and Waterfield, B., ‘Belgian police admit seeking wrong man as Vervier shooutout jihadists named’, The Telegraph, 22 January 2015, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/11362093/Belgian-police-admit-seeking-wrong-man-as-Vervier-shooutout-jihadists-named.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 195 Dearden, L., ‘Abdelhamid Abaaoud: What we know about Belgian man identified as suspected Paris attacks 'mastermind'’, Independent, 16 November 2015. 196 ‘Paris attacks: Who was Abdelhamid Abaaoud?’, BBC News, 19 November 2015; and ‘France 'foils five terror attacks' - PM Valls’, BBC News, 23 April 2015, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32427129, last visited: 9 August 2016. 197 ‘At least 8 suspects are at large with links to attacks in Brussels, Paris’, CNN, 28 March 2016. 198 ‘Factbox: The hunt for the Paris attackers’, Reuters, 24 December 2015. 199 ‘How Islamic State Infiltrated Europe’, The Wall Street Journal, 1 April 2016; and Dalton, M., ‘Investigators Home In on Scope of Terror Network Behind Brussels, Paris Attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 4 April 2016. 200 Roberts, H., ‘The pot-smoking Paris suicide bomber: Ex-wife reveals 'blood brother' terrorist was a jobless layabout who spent his time taking drugs and sleeping... and never went to the mosque’, Daily Mail Online, 17 November 2015, available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3322385/Ex-wife-Comptoir- Voltaire-caf-bomber-reveals-jobless-layabout-spent-day-bed-smoking-pot-French-say-blew-mistake-fiddling-suicide-vest.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 201 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, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11996120/Paris-attack-what-we-know-about-the-suspects.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 202 Roberts, H., ‘The pot-smoking Paris suicide bomber: Ex-wife reveals 'blood brother' terrorist was a jobless layabout who spent his time taking drugs and sleeping... and never went to the mosque’, Daily Mail Online, 17 November 2015. 203 ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016. 204 Faiola, A. and Souad Mekhennet, ‘The Islamic State creates a new type of jihadist: Part terrorist, part gangster’, The Washington Post, 20 December 2015. 205 Sharkov, D., ‘WATCH: PARIS ATTACKERS PARTY IN BRUSSELS NIGHT CLUB’, Newsweek Europe, 29 March 2016, available at: http://europe.newsweek.com/watch-paris-attackers-party-brussels-night-club-441547; and Paris attacks: Abdeslam brothers 'were manipulated, not radicalised'’, BBC News, 22 November 2015, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34895294. Both last visited: 9 August 2016. 206 Roberts, H., ‘The pot-smoking Paris suicide bomber: Ex-wife reveals 'blood brother' terrorist was a jobless layabout who spent his time taking drugs and sleeping... and never went to the mosque’, Daily Mail Online, 17 November 2015; and Roberts, H., ‘Mother of Paris suicide bomber says her son may have blown himself up because of STRESS... while his brother says the family 'are thinking of the victims' after he is released without charge’, available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3320157/Mother-Paris-suicide-bomber-says-son-did-not-mean-kill-claims-blown-STRESS.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 207 ‘Paris attacks: Abdeslam brothers 'were manipulated, not radicalised'’, BBC News, 22 November 2015. 208 ‘Is Europe still at threat from Paris-Brussels terror 'supercell'?’, France 24, 11 April 2016. 209 ibid. 210 Faiola, A. and Souad Mekhennet, ‘The Islamic State creates a new type of jihadist: Part terrorist, part gangster’, The Washington Post, 20 December 2015. 211 ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016. ! ! 21 !