AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW 546 on 15 January 2015. Police discovered Kalashnikovs, bomb-making equipment and police uniforms at 547 the scene. Foreign training/combat: Katibat al-Battar, a militia in Syria associated with IS claimed Amghar had fought 548 with them in Syria. Movements: 549 Syria (2014). Criminal history: 550 Amghar reportedly had a history of petty crime, including theft and robbery. Known to the authorities: Both Amghar and his associate, Khalid Ben Larbi, were under Belgian 551 surveillance before the police raid in which they were killed. Networks and associates: -! Paris attacks (November 2015): Abdelhamid Abaaoud [Believed to have been plotting to kill 552 police officers with Abaaoud]. Verviers cell: 553 -! Sofiane Amghar [Plotted together to attack Belgian police]; Marouane el-Bali 554 [Suspected of providing logistics for the cell and present in the house during the firefight]. MEHDI NEMMOUCHE: Nemmouche, alleged to be responsible for a gun attack on a Brussels Jewish 555 556 Museum in May 2014, is linked to Abdelhamid Abaaoud. The two men had met in Syria and four days before Nemmouche left from Cologne airport in January 2014 the men had a 24 minute phone 557 558 call. Nemmouche has been described as a “sadistic jailer” who allegedly tortured prisoners for IS under 559 the command of Amr al-Absi. He had previously been imprisoned for robbery for five years and was 560 released in 2012. AYOUB EL KHAZZANI: A 25-year-old Moroccan who attacked an Amsterdam-Paris train in August 2015, Khazzani’s attack failed when he was incapacitated by passengers. Originally from Tetouan, Morocco, he moved to Spain from 2007 to 2014 before moving to France, and then Belgium. In Spain he attended a well-known radical mosque in Algeciras and was involved in drugs trafficking, and was already known to the Spanish authorities for “comments defending jihadists”.561 Abdelhamid Abaaoud is 562 believed to have been involved with the attack. ! ! 546 Dalton, M., ‘Investigators Home In on Scope of Terror Network Behind Brussels, Paris Attacks’, The Wall Street Journal, 4 April 2016. 547 Dearden, L., ‘Abdelhamid Abaaoud: What we know about Belgian man identified as suspected Paris attacks 'mastermind'’, Independent, 16 November 2015. 548 Dalton, M., ‘Two Killed in Belgian Terror Raid Linked to Militants in Syria’, The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2015. 549 Waterfield, B., ‘Belgian police admit seeking wrong man as Vervier shooutout jihadists named’, The Telegraph, 22 January 2015. 550 Dalton, M., ‘Two Killed in Belgian Terror Raid Linked to Militants in Syria’, The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2015. 551 Waterfield, B., ‘Belgian police admit seeking wrong man as Vervier shooutout jihadists named’, The Telegraph, 22 January 2015. 552 Dearden, L., ‘Abdelhamid Abaaoud: What we know about Belgian man identified as suspected Paris attacks 'mastermind'’, Independent, 16 November 2015. 553 ibid. 554 Waterfield, B., ‘Belgian police admit seeking wrong man as Vervier shooutout jihadists named’, The Telegraph, 22 January 2015. 555 ‘France arrests Syria jihad suspects as Nemmouche held’, BBC News, 1 June 2014, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27660683, last visited: 9 August 2016. 556 ‘How Islamic State Infiltrated Europe’, The Wall Street Journal, 1 April 2016. 557 ‘At least 8 suspects are at large with links to attacks in Brussels, Paris’, CNN, 28 March 2016. 558 Mendick, R. et al., ‘Brussels museum shooting suspect 'was Syria hostage torturer'’, The Telegraph, 6 September 2016, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11079100/Brussels-museum-shooting-suspect-was-Syria-hostage-torturer.html, last visited: 9 August 2016. 559 ‘Masterminds of Terror’, Raconteur, May 2016. 560 ‘France arrests Syria jihad suspects as Nemmouche held’, BBC News, 1 June 2014. 561 ‘France train shooting: Attack 'was well prepared'’, BBC News, 26 August 2015, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34055713, last visited: 9 August 2016. 562 ‘Paris attacks: Who was Abdelhamid Abaaoud?’, BBC News, 19 November 2015. ! ! 48 !