AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 1.6 Islamic State SALIM BENGHALEM Role: Recruitment and organisation. There has been speculation over whether Salem was the primary 478 organiser of the Paris attacks above Abdelhamid Abaaoud. He has been described as IS’s theatre 479 commander for Europe. Bio: 480 Benghalem, who grew up in the Cachan suburb to the south of Paris, is reported to have been a sociable young man who drank and took drugs while working in a number of jobs including as a supermarket cashier. He became involved in gang violence and fled to Algeria in 2001 after being accused of attempted murder. He returned to France and was arrested in 2002, and was held on remand until his 481 conviction in 2007, when he was sentenced to 11 years. He was released in 2010 and appears to have become radicalised while in prison. He was involved in a plot to free a convicted Islamist extremist from jail in 2010 alongside Charlie Hebdo shooter Cherif Kouachi and the Hypercache supermarket shooter Ahmedy Coulibaly on his release in 2010, and is also believed to have travelled to Yemen with Kouachi 482 in 2011. He is thought to have travelled to Syria in 2013. Since arriving in Syria, Benghalem is alleged to have worked as an IS “police chief” in al-Bab district of Aleppo where he lives. US officials have referred to him as “chief executioner” because he is believed to 483 have been involved with the kidnap and torture of Western hostages. He has also been described as 484 France’s top IS recruiter and has also been involved with IS propaganda. In January 2015, he praised 485 the Paris attacks of that month in an IS video, and he was also filmed calling on French Muslims to carry 486 out terror operations in France a month later. In early January 2016, Benghalem was sentenced in 487 absentia by a Paris court to 15 years for recruiting for IS. He has since been reported to have received 488 injuries to his legs in a coalition airstrike. Foreign training/combat: Believed to have travelled to Yemen in 2011 and come “under the influence” 489 of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Anwar al-Awlaki. In 2013, he travelled to Syria 490 and is believed to be there currently. Movements: Algeria (2001); Yemen (2011); Syria (2013). ! ! 478 ‘Paris attacks: Was Salim Benghalem the real ringleader?’, BBC News, 23 January 2015, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35399021, last visited: 9 August 2016. 479Van Vlierden, G., ‘The Zerkani Network: Belgium’s Most Dangerous Jihadist Group’, The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2016. 480 Weiss, M., ‘Is This Frenchman Running ISIS Terror Networks in the West?’, The Daily Beast, 2 May 2016, available at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/01/is-this-frenchman-running-isis-terror-networks-in-the-west.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 481 ‘French IS group recruiter sentenced to 15 years in absentia’, France 24, 7 January 2015, available at: http://www.france24.com/en/20160107-france-benghalem- islamic-state-recruiter-jailed-absentia, last visited: 9 August 2016. 482 ‘Paris attacks: Was Salim Benghalem the real ringleader?’, BBC News, 23 January 2015. 483 Weiss, M., ‘Is This Frenchman Running ISIS Terror Networks in the West?’, The Daily Beast, 2 May 2016. 484 McHugh, J., ‘Who Is Salim Benghalem? Trial Begins For France's Top ISIS Recruiter, Called True Mastermind Of Paris Islamic State Attacks’, International Business Times, 1 December 2015, available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/who-salim-benghalem-trial-begins-frances-top-isis-recruiter-called-true-mastermind- 2205958, last visited: 9 August 2016. 485 ‘Paris attacks: Was Salim Benghalem the real ringleader?’, BBC News, 23 January 2015. 486 ibid. 487 ibid. 488 Weiss, M., ‘Is This Frenchman Running ISIS Terror Networks in the West?’, The Daily Beast, 2 May 2016. 489 ‘Paris attacks: Was Salim Benghalem the real ringleader?’, BBC News, 23 January 2015. 490 McHugh, J., ‘Who Is Salim Benghalem? Trial Begins For France's Top ISIS Recruiter, Called True Mastermind Of Paris Islamic State Attacks’, International Business Times, 1 December 2015. ! ! 42 !