AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW ABDERRAHMANE AMEROUD Role: 463 Charged with involvement in Reda Kriket’s foiled plot to attack Paris. Bio: A38-year-old Algerian, Ameroud was involved in petty crime as a youth along with his older brothers before graduating to violent extremism. He is claimed to have visited al-Qaeda training camps in the late 464 1990s and to have been involved in the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud. He is reported to have been sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in this attack in 2005.465 He has also been described 466 as “linked” to the Zerkani network, though the nature of the link is unclear. Ameroud was shot in the leg and arrested in Schaerbeek in March 2016 in relation to Reda Kriket’s foiled plot to attack Paris.467 Foreign combat experience: Reports in the French media suggest he travelled to an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 1999. Movements: 468 Afghanistan. Criminal history : Ameroud was convicted in 2005 as an accomplice to the assassination of Ahmad Shah 469 Massoud in 2001 and sentenced to seven years. Known to the authorities: Known to the authorities following his conviction in 2005. Networks and associates : -! Zerkani network: Reda Kriket [Charged with involvement with Kriket’s plot]; Khalid Zerkani 470 [Described as “linked” to the Zerkani network]; See Khalid Zerkani profile for full list of other network associates Ameroud may have associated with. ILIAS MOHAMMADI: An alleged member of the Zerkani network who returned from Syria to Belgium using false ID the day after the 24 May 2014 attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels and was arrested with “a significant amount of ammunition”. Official documents revealed that he knew Gelel Attar and Chakib 471 Akrouh. 472 473 YONI PATRIC MAYNE: A 25-year-old Belgian-Malian, Mayne had worked in a video store before 474 attending Zerkani’s meetings and became more radical in the process. On 20 January 2014, he travelled to Syria with Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Abaaoud’s brother, Younes, flying from Cologne to Istanbul. However, he is first believed to have travelled to Syria in April 2013. He was arrested on his return, but ! ! 463 ‘Belgian charged with terrorism over foiled Paris attack plot’, France 24, 2 April 2016, available at: http://www.france24.com/en/20160402-belgian-charged-with- terrorism-over-foiled-attack-plot, last visited: 9 August 2016. 464 ibid. 465 ‘Terror suspect shot and held by Brussels police 'had been jailed for seven years for helping Taliban assassinate Afghan leader two days before 9/11'’, Daily Mail Online, 26 March 2016, available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3510599/Terror-suspect-shot-held-Brussels-police-jailed-seven-years-helping-Taliban- assassinate-Afghan-leader-two-days-9-11.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 466Van Vlierden, G., ‘The Zerkani Network: Belgium’s Most Dangerous Jihadist Group’, The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2016. 467 ‘France charges main suspect in foiled attack plot’, The Times of Israel, 31 March 2016; and ‘Thwarted Paris plot linked to deadly Brussels ISIS cell’, CBS News, 25 March 2016; Mortimer, C., ‘Reda Kriket: Main suspect charged in connection with foiled Paris attack plot’, Independent, 30 March 2016. 468Van Vlierden, G., ‘The Zerkani Network: Belgium’s Most Dangerous Jihadist Group’, The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2016; ‘Nouvelle reconduite vers l'Algérie’, Le Parisien, 29 July 2005, available at: http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/nouvelle-reconduite-vers-l-algerie-29-07-2005-2006166577.php, last visited: 9 August 2016. 469 ‘Terror suspect shot and held by Brussels police 'had been jailed for seven years for helping Taliban assassinate Afghan leader two days before 9/11'’, Daily Mail Online, 26 March 2016. 470Van Vlierden, G., ‘The Zerkani Network: Belgium’s Most Dangerous Jihadist Group’, The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2016. 471 Van Vlierden, G., ‘Belgium knew in 2012 already that Paris suspects were plotting attacks’, Emmejihad, 26 January 2016. 472 Dalton, M., ‘Investigators Home In on Scope of Terror Network Behind Brussels, Paris Attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 4 April 2016. 473 ‘At least 8 suspects are at large with links to attacks in Brussels, Paris’, CNN, 28 March 2016. 474 Dalton, M., ‘Investigators Home In on Scope of Terror Network Behind Brussels, Paris Attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 4 April 2016. ! ! 40 !