AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Network and associates: -! Brussels attacks (March 2016): Ibrahim el-Bakraoui [brother and fellow attacker], Najim 47 48 Laachraoui [fellow attacker]; Mohamed Abrini [Abrini visited the Charleroi safe house rented 49 by Khalid el-Bakraoui; Youssef El Ajmi [Childhood friend who provided el-Bakraoui with messages on flight times from Zaventem airport and visited him at a house in Etterbeek, 50 Brussels]. -! Paris attacks (November 2015): Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Brahim Abdeslam, Salah Abdeslam, Bilal Hadfi [finger prints of Abaaoud and Hadfi found at a safe house in Charleroi visited by both 51 52 Abdeslam brothers and which was rented by Khalid el-Bakraoui; Hadfi’s DNA was also found 53 in an apartment in Schaerbeek which was rented by Khalid el-Bakraoui, while Salah Abdeslam 54 hid there after the Paris attacks; Mohamed Belkaid [Khalid el-Bakraoui rented an apartment in the Forest area of Brussels in which Belkaid was killed and Abdeslam’s DNA was discovered – 55 he is believed to have fled during the police raid] Other: 56 -! Soufiane Ayari [Escaped from the Forest flat during a police raid on 15 March 2016, 57 where his fake Belgian ID in the name Amine Choukri was discovered]; Mohamed Belkaid 58 [Killed during the police raid on the Forest flat]. IBRAHIM EL-BAKRAOUI Role: 59 Brussels airport suicide bomber; suspected of playing a role in the logistics of the Paris attacks, 60 including providing ammunition. Bio: , 61 Ibrahim el-Bakraoui 29 years old, grew up with his brother Khalid; They grew up in Laeken, 62 Brussels, their father a butcher who had emigrated from Morocco. Both Bakraoui brothers are alleged to have been plotting another attack in which radioactive material would be scattered over a populated area; in particular, they have been linked to the surveillance of a senior Belgian nuclear authority. It is ! ! 47 Sandhu, S., ‘Brussels attacks: Who were the attackers and what happened? Everything we know so far’, Independent, 23 March 2016, available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brussels-attacks-what-happened-everything-we-know-on-wednesday-a6947346.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 48 ‘Belgian police identify three safe houses used by Paris suspects’, The Express Tribune, 13 January 2016, available at: http://tribune.com.pk/story/1026817/belgian-police-identify-three-safe-houses-used-by-paris-suspects/; and ‘Brussels attacks: Have blunders hampered Belgian investigation?’ BBC News, 15 April 2016. Both last visited: 9 August 2016. 49 ‘Brussels attacks: Have blunders hampered Belgian investigation?’, BBC News, 15 April 2016. 50 ‘Attentats a Bruxelles: la detention de Youssef El Ajmi prolongee’, La Libre, 8 July 2016, available at: http://www.lalibre.be/actu/belgique/attentats-a-bruxelles-la- detention-de-youssef-el-ajmi-prolongee-577fa65b3570ec4c4382c64b, last visited: 9 August 2016. 51 ‘Belgian police identify three safe houses used by Paris suspects’, The Express Tribune, 13 January 2016; and ‘Brussels attacks: Have blunders hampered Belgian investigation?’ BBC News, 15 April 2016, last visited: 9 August 2016. 52 ‘Brussels attacks: Have blunders hampered Belgian investigation?’, BBC News, 15 April 2016. 53 Kroet, C., ‘Belgian police identify third Paris attack safe house’, Politico, 13 January 2016, available at: http://www.politico.eu/article/belgian-police-identify-third- paris-attack-safe-house-terrorism-brussels-charleroi-france-abaaoud/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 54 ibid.; and Henley, J. and Angelique Chrisafis, ‘Brussels bomber's DNA confirms his link to Paris attacks, say prosecutors’, Guardian, 25 March 2016, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/25/police-arrest-men-brussels-paris-terror-attacks. Both last visited: 9 August 2016. 55 Chrisafis, A., ‘Two suspects still on run after Brussels anti-terror raid that killed one’, Guardian, 16 March 2016, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/16/paris-attacks-suspect-algerian-in-belgium-prosecutor; and Chrisafis, A. and Jon Henley, ‘Brussels suicide bombers identified as police hunt suspect caught on CCTV’, Guardian, 23 March 2016; and Allen, P., and Sophie Evans, ‘World's ‘most wanted ISIS terrorist’ made astonishing escape from Brussels police raid that killed Paris attacks suspect’, Mirror, 18 March 2016, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/worlds-most- wanted-isis-terrorist-7583915. All last visited: 9 August 2016. 56 Verberght, M. et al., ‘Salah Abdeslam, Paris Attacks Suspect, Captured in Belgian Raid’, The Wall Street Journal, 18 March 2016, available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/salah-abdeslam-paris-attack-suspect-captured-in-belgian-raid-1458323779, last visited: 9 August 2016. 57 ‘Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam’s luck runs out’, BBC News, 19 March 2016, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35848555, last visited: 9 August 2016. 58 Verberght, M. et al., ‘Salah Abdeslam, Paris Attacks Suspect, Captured in Belgian Raid’, The Wall Street Journal, 18 March 2016. 59 Henley, J. and Kareem Shaheen, ‘Suicide bombers in Brussels had known links to Paris attacks’, Guardian, 23 March 2016. 60 Tomlinson, S., ‘Revealed: Bomber brothers were gangland criminals and wanted by Interpol – but were STILL able to provide ammunition for Paris attacks and rent flat for Brussels mastermind’, Daily Mail Online, 23 March 2016. 61 ‘Brussels suicide bombers identified as police hunt suspect caught on CCTV’, Guardian, 23 March 2016. 62 ‘Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui: From Bank Robbers to Brussels Bombers’, International New York Times, 24 March 2016. ! ! 11 !