AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Bio: 514 A 36-year-old Saudi-born Syrian, al-Absi and his older brother, Firas al-Absi (an associate of al- 515 516 Qaeda in Iraq head Abu Musab Al-Zaqarwi) joined IS while it was still affiliated with al-Qaeda. The brothers led a group they called the Majlis Shura Mujadeddin (MSM) which they had set up in 2012 and Amr al-Absi took over the group after Firas was killed later that year. In 2013, he incorporated the MSM 517 into IS and was later appointed the group’s governor of Aleppo. From then until his death in 2016, he is described as having played an “important role” in IS’s Shura Council,518 potentially as IS leader Abu 519 520 Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Syrian deputy, and directed the production of IS’s online propaganda. He was also called the group’s “kidnapper-in-chief” and his hostages included James Foley, John Cantlie, Alan 521 Henning and David Haines. Foreign training/combat: See above. Movements: Unknown. Criminal history: Unknown. Known to the authorities: 522 Al-Absi was added to the UN sanctions list in September 2015. Networks and associates: Brussels attacks (March 2016): 523 -! Najim Laachraoui [Part of al-Absi’s group in Syria; alleged to 524 have been put in charge of the interrogation of hostages]. -! Paris attacks (November 2015): Abdelhamid Abaaoud [Believed to have been at one time close 525 to al-Absi]. Other: 526 -! Mehdi Nemmouche [Tortured hostages under the command of al-Absi]; Mohammed Emwazi [Part of al-Absi’s group in Syria, he was one of al-Absi’s jailers].527 ABU SULEYMAN AL-FARANSI Role: Alleged to be a director of IS’s external intelligence operation, the Amn al-Kharji, it has been 528 suggested al-Faransi may have “conceived and planned” the Paris attacks, and may have also seen and 529 approved the Brussels attack plans. ! ! 514 Bacchi, U., ‘Isis: Islamic State kidnapper-in-chief Amr al-Absi 'killed in Aleppo', International Business Times, 4 March 2016, available at: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-islamic-state-kidnapper-chief-amr-al-absi-killed-aleppo-1547638, last visited: 9 August 2016. 515 Spencer, R., ‘Four jihadists, one prison: all released by Assad and all now dead’, The Telegraph, 11 May 2016. 516 Bacchi, U., ‘Isis: Islamic State kidnapper-in-chief Amr al-Absi 'killed in Aleppo', International Business Times, 4 March 2016. 517 ibid. 518 Barrett, R., ‘The Islamic State’, The Soufan Group, November 2014, available at: http://soufangroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TSG-The-Islamic-State- Nov14.pdf, last visited: 9 August 2016, pp. 52, 30. 519 ‘An Account of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi & Islamic State Succession Lines’, Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, 24 January 2016, available at: http://www.aymennjawad.org/2016/01/an-account-of-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-islamic-state, last visited: 9 August 2016. 520 Bacchi, U., ‘Isis: Islamic State kidnapper-in-chief Amr al-Absi 'killed in Aleppo', International Business Times, 4 March 2016. 521 Spencer, R., ‘Four jihadists, one prison: all released by Assad and all now dead’, The Telegraph, 11 May 2016. 522 Bacchi, U., ‘Isis: Islamic State kidnapper-in-chief Amr al-Absi 'killed in Aleppo', International Business Times, 4 March 2016. 523 Spencer, R., ‘Four jihadists, one prison: all released by Assad and all now dead’, The Telegraph, 11 May 2016. 524 ‘Brussels bomber Laachraoui was hostage gaoler in Syria – lawyer’, Reuters, 22 April 2016, available at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-attacks-syria- idUKKCN0XJ1FU, last visited: 9 August 2016. 525 Spencer, R., ‘Four jihadists, one prison: all released by Assad and all now dead’, The Telegraph, 11 May 2016. 526 ‘Masterminds of Terror’, Raconteur, May 2016, available at: http://raconteur.net/magazine/masterminds-of-terror, last visited: 9 August 2016. 527 Spencer, R., ‘Four jihadists, one prison: all released by Assad and all now dead’, The Telegraph, 11 May 2016. 528 Weiss, M., ‘Is This Frenchman Running ISIS Terror Networks in the West?’, The Daily Beast, 2 May 2016. 529 Gartenstein-Ross, D. and Nathaniel Barr, ‘Recent Attacks Illuminate Islamic State’s Europe Attack Network’, The Jamestown Foundation, 27 April 2016. ! ! 45 !