AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 331 MOHAMED BELKAID aka Samir Bouzid Role: Believed to have been one of the co-ordinators of the Paris attacks and to have been in telephone 332 contact with the Paris attackers on the night of the attacks. Believed to have been planning a shooting 333 attack with Soufiane Ayari and Salah Abdeslam to accompany the Brussels attacks. Bio 334 : A 35-year-old Algerian, Belkaid appears to have been unknown to the authorities as an extremism risk and told IS recruiters in 2014 he had no experience as a jihadist and that his former occupation was 335 as a confectioner. He was shot and killed by Belgian police on 15 March during the raid on the 336 apartment in Rue de Dries, Forest, which led to the later arrest of Salah Abdeslam on 18 March. Foreign training/combat: Travelled to Syria in April 2014. Movements: Belkaid claimed to have travelled throughout Europe, including to Spain, Germany and 337 France, and “listed his residence as Sweden”. He used a fake Belgian ID under the name Samir 338 Bouzid. Belkaid travelled with Salah Abdeslam to pick up Najim Laachraoui, who was travelling back 339 from Syria, from Hungary. Criminal history: 340 Reported to be known to Belgian police in relation to a theft case in 2014. Known to the authorities: 341 Following the Paris attacks was known to investigators only as Samir Bouzid. Networks and Associates: -! Brussels attacks (March 2016): Khalid el-Bakraoui [El-Bakraoui rented the apartment in Forest 342 in which Belkaid was killed]; Najim Laachraoui [Belkaid travelled with Abdeslam to pick up 343 Laachraoui in Hungary in September 2015]; Paris attacks (November 2015): -! Salah Abdeslam [killed in the raid that led to Abdeslam’s arrest, Belkaid also travelled to Hungary with Abdeslam]; Believed to have been one of the coordinators 344 of the attacks. Other: 345 -! Hasna Aitboulahcen [the two were in contact by telephone and he wired money to her; 346 Belkaid’s fake ID was used to transfer money to the bank account of Hasna, Abaaoud’s cousin]; Soufiane Ayari [Ayari escaped from the apartment in Forest during the police raid in which ! ! 331 ‘Belkaïd, alias Samir Bouzid, lié aux attentats de Paris et tué à Forest’, Le Parisien, 18 March 2016, available at: http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/belkaid-alias- samir-bouzid-lie-aux-attentats-de-paris-et-tue-a-forest-18-03-2016-5638775.php, last visited: 9 August 2016. 332 ‘How are the Brussels attackers linked to Paris?’, France 24, 21 April 2016. 333 ‘Factbox: The hunt for the Paris attackers’, Reuters, 24 December 2015. 334 ‘La galaxie djihadiste: Les protaganistes’, Le Parisien, available at: http://atelier.leparisien.fr/galaxie-djihadiste/profil.php?id=P066; Olidort, J., ‘Flipping the Script on ISIS’, The Washington Institute, 18 April 2016, available at: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/flipping-the-script-on-isis. Both last visited: 9 August 2016. 335 ‘Dead Brussels gunman wanted to be ISIS suicide bomber’, New York Post, 19 March 2016, available at: http://nypost.com/2016/03/19/dead-brussels-gunman- wanted-to-be-isis-suicide-bomber/, last visited: 9 August 2016. 336 ‘How are the Brussels attackers linked to Paris?’, France 24, 21 April 2016. 337 ‘Dead Brussels gunman wanted to be ISIS suicide bomber’, New York Post, 19 March 2016. 338 ‘Mohamed Belkaid, Brussels Gunman, Sought Islamic State Suicide Mission’, The Huffington Post, 19 March 2016, available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/19/mohamed-belkaid-islamic-state_n_9505626.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 339 ‘How are the Brussels attackers linked to Paris?’, France 24, 21 April 2016. 340 Chrisafis, A., ‘Two suspects still on run after Brussels anti-terror raid that killed one’, Guardian, 16 March 2016. 341 ‘How are the Brussels attackers linked to Paris?’, France 24, 21 April 2016. 342 ‘Brussels suicide bombers identified as police hunt suspect caught on CCTV’, Guardian, 23 March 2016. 343 ‘How are the Brussels attackers linked to Paris?’, France 24, 21 April 2016. 344 ibid. 345 ibid. 346 ‘Dead Brussels gunman wanted to be ISIS suicide bomber’, New York Post, 19 March 2016. ! ! 31 !