AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW Bio: While little is known about al-Faransi other than that he used to be a gym manager, his pseudonym indicates that he is probably a French national, with IS sources claiming he was born and educated in France and is of North African heritage. He is believed to be living in al-Bab in Aleppo district, northern Syria, with his wife and two children. An IS defector claims al-Faransi started out as a low-ranking officer in IS’s security services before presenting IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with plans for the Paris attacks. Reports suggest he was promoted to “operations chief” after the attacks and a French security source has 530 described him as the “head of overall operations in Europe”. Foreign training/combat: See above. Movements: Unknown. Criminal history: Unknown. Known to the authorities: Unknown. Networks and associates: -! Brussels attacks (March 2016): Ibrahim el-Bakraoui [El-Bakraoui passed plans of the plot on to 531 al-Faransi]. -! Paris attacks (November 2015): Alleged to have potentially “conceived and planned” the Paris 532 attacks. ! ! 530 Weiss, M., ‘Is This Frenchman Running ISIS Terror Networks in the West?’, The Daily Beast, 2 May 2016. 531 Gartenstein-Ross, D. and Nathaniel Barr, ‘Recent Attacks Illuminate Islamic State’s Europe Attack Network’, The Jamestown Foundation, 27 April 2016. 532 Weiss, M., ‘Is This Frenchman Running ISIS Terror Networks in the West?’, The Daily Beast, 2 May 2016. ! ! 46 !