AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 1211 1212 1213 1214 and spent time in Afghanistan, while Yacine Aknouche, Fouhad Sabour, Lamine Maroni, Salim 1215 1216 1217 Boukhari, Lazhar Ben Mohammed Tlili, and Aeroubi Beandali all spent time in Afghanistan. Another al-Qaeda operative connected to the plot, Said Arif, had travelled to Afghanistan in the late 1218 1990s, and would later flee to Syria following the outbreak of the conflict there before being killed in a 1219 Coalition airstrike. In addition to the ‘Frankfurt cell’ members, at least two of the men convicted as part of the NATO airbase plot other than Nizar Trabelsi had experience of Afghan training camps, with 1220 Mohammed Amor Sliti involved in training militants and his cousin Hisham bin Ali bin Amor receiving 1221 weapons training and fighting against Coalition forces. Other members of the networks are likely to have gained training with other Islamist militant groups, with the al-Qaeda financiers Baghdad Meziane and Brahim Benmerzouga believed to have been members of 1222 the GIA in Algeria. Similarly, Abu Doha’s protégée, Rabah Kadre, is alleged to have been a member 1223 of the GSPC. Others, including Beghal, have been named as members of the GIA or GSPC who then 1224 travelled on to Afghanistan, including Merouane Benahmed, described as a former GIA commander, 1225 and Tarek Maaroufi, convicted of involvement in GIA arms trafficking before he travelled to 1226 Afghanistan. 3.7 The Syria/Iraq Connection The Brussels-Paris networks offer a similar story. A recent interview with IS defector Abu Khaled suggested that IS operatives, raised in Europe and trained in Syria, are being deployed by IS to form networks with the sole purpose of attacking the West. Abu Khaled claimed that the IS leadership are “trying to make sleeper cells all over the world. [They] asked people to stay in their countries and fight there, kill citizens, blow up buildings, whatever they can do”.1227 This has been echoed by the suggestions that IS uses ‘theatre commanders’ to oversee attacks who originate in the regions over which they preside, with the theatre commander thought to be connected to the Paris-Brussels networks a French national 1228 called Salim Benghalem. As a result, similarly to the older al-Qaeda-linked networks, many of those behind the Brussels and Paris attacks and associated cells travelled overseas to gain combat experience. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 1229 ringleader of the Paris attacks, is believed to have been close to IS Shura Council member Amr al- ! ! 1211 ‘Brothers-in-law, one considered key player, investigated in French Strasbourg bomb plot’, Associated Press International, 29 November 2002. 1212 ‘London al-Qaeda suspect will face extradition’, Sunday Times, 10 March 2002. 1213 Harris, P. et al., ‘Al-Qaeda's bombers used Britain to plot slaughter’, Guardian, 21 April 2002. 1214 ibid. 1215 ibid. 1216 ‘Tunisian May Hold Key to Guantanamo Trials’, CBS News, 13 November 2009. 1217 ‘Militant admits French bomb plot’, BBC News, 23 April 2002. 1218 ‘Terrorist Designation of Said Arif’, US Department of State, 18 August 2014. 1219 Joscelyn, T., ‘Another al Qaeda veteran reportedly killed while leading Jund al Aqsa in Syria’, The Long War Journal, 27 May 2016. 1220 Escobar, P., ‘The Roving Eye: Part 4: Tracking al-Qaeda in Europe’, Asia Times Online, 13 July 2002. 1221 ‘JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment’, United States Department of Defense, 1 October 2008; and ‘JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment’, United States Department of Defense, 1 October 2008; and Scheinkman, A. et al., ‘Hisham Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti’ in ‘The Guantanamo Docket’, The New York Times. 1222 Mendick, R., ‘Leicester terrorist cell that laid seeds of Paris atrocity’, The Telegraph, 17 January 2015. 1223 nd Stuart, H. et al., Islamist Terrorism: The British Connections, 2 edition (The Henry Jackson Society, 2011), pp. 445-6 1224 ‘France dismantles terror cell linked to al-Qaida, ministry says’ Associated Press International, 27 December 2002. 1225 ‘Men jailed over Al Qaeda anti-NATO plot’, ABC News, 30 September 2003. 1226 Zelin, A., ‘Tarek Maaroufi: Tunisia's Most Notorious Jihadist, Returns Home’, Tunisialive, 1 April 2012. 1227 ‘Confessions of an ISIS spy’, The Daily Beast, 15 November 2015, available at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/longforms/2015/isis-weiss/confessions-of-an-isis- spy.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 1228Gartenstein-Ross, D, and Nathaniel Barr, ‘Recent Attacks Illuminate the Islamic State’s Europe Attack Network’, The Jamestown Foundation, 27 April 2016. 1229 Spencer, R., ‘Four jihadists, one prison: all released by Assad and all now dead’, The Telegraph, 11 May 2016. ! ! 96 !