Brussels Islamic State terror cell
The Brussels Islamic State terror cell was an Islamic terrorist sub-group of the Islamic State, a jihadist terrorist organisation primarily based in Syria and Iraq. The terror cell was involved in large-scale attacks in Paris in November 2015, in which 130 people were killed, and Brussels in March 2016, in which 32 people were killed.
Background
On 13 November 2015, a group of ten IS terrorists carried out a series of coordinated attacks across the French capital, Paris; 130 people were killed in the attacks. Seven of the terrorists died during the attacks; two of the remaining three were tracked down five days later and killed in the 2015 Saint-Denis raid along with the woman who had provided them with a hideout. The tenth attacker failed to detonate his suicide vest and returned to the Belgian capital, Brussels.The police manhunt for the tenth attacker and further accomplices led them to Brussels. Between 21 and 25 November, the city was placed in lockdown due to the threat of another terrorist attack. On 15 March 2016, the police raided a flat in the Brussels district of Forest, killing one terrorist whilst two others escaped. The two who escaped were arrested three days later on 18 March in the Molenbeek district of Brussels. A second major attack then took place on 22 March in Brussels in which coordinated bombings at the airport and at a metro station killed 32 people. Three suicide bombers died, while another two fled without detonating their explosives.
In June 2022, after a ten-month trial in Paris, a total of 19 men were convicted of being involved in the terror cell that planned and carried out the Paris attacks, with a twentieth man convicted of criminal but not terrorist offences.
In July 2023, after a seven-month trial in Brussels, six men were convicted of terrorist murder and attempted murder in relation to the Brussels attacks. Another two were cleared of terrorist murder and attempted murder but convicted of terrorist activity, while two were cleared of all charges.
2015 Paris attackers
Three teams, comprising one team of four people and two teams of three people each, carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks. Seven attackers died at the scenes of their attacks. Two of the attackers were killed five days later during the Saint-Denis police raid, while Salah Abdeslam returned to Brussels.Stade de France attackers
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Stade de France:Bilal Hadfi
Hadfi was a 20-year-old French national of Moroccan descent who had been living in Belgium. He attempted to enter the Stade de France but blew himself up nearby after being denied entry. He had gone to Syria in early 2015 and his name was on a list of 800 suspected Belgian jihadists. Belgian authorities were unaware of his return to Europe."Ahmad Almohammad"
Another of the Stade de France bombers carried a fake Syrian passport with the name "Ahmad Almohammad". His fingerprints matched those of a man registered as a Syrian refugee under the same name on the island of Leros in October 2015 upon his arrival from Turkey. In January 2016, the IS online magazine Dabiq identified him as an Iraqi national. In January 2017 a declassified French intelligence file identified the bomber as Ammar Ramadan Mansour Mohamad al-Sabaawi, an Iraqi in his twenties from Mosul. IS paid al-Sabaawi's family $5,000 and a flock of sheep after his death."M. al-Mahmod"
The third Stade de France bomber was an Iraqi national. He travelled together with "Ahmad al-Mohammad" and used a fake Syrian passport with the name of "M. al Mahmod".Salah Abdeslam
Abdeslam drove the three Stade de France bombers to the football stadium. He was then supposed to detonate his own suicide vest in the 18th arrondissement of Paris but the device malfunctioned and he returned to Brussels the following morning.Abdeslam is a Belgian-born French national of Moroccan descent. He grew up in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, where he was involved in petty crime and drug dealing. During the summer and autumn of 2015 he participated in preparations for the Paris and Brussels attacks. He picked up members of the group returning from Syria via the migrant route in Germany and Hungary and drove them to Brussels. He hired two of the cars used in the Paris attacks and bought material for making explosives. After four months hiding in Brussels, Abdeslam was arrested on 18 March 2016 in Molenbeek. Three days earlier he had escaped from a hideout in the Forest district of Brussels during a police shootout.
In April 2018, Abdeslam was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his part in the Forest shoot-out. In June 2022, at the Paris attacks trial he was sentenced to a full-life term in prison. In December 2022 he went on trial in Brussels for his involvement in the Brussels attacks. Verdicts were delivered on 25 July 2023; Abdeslam was convicted of terrorist-related murder and attempted murder. He was not given a sentence as he had already been sentenced for a connected crime.
Paris restaurant attackers
Three men carried out the shootings at bars and restaurants in Paris:Abdelhamid Abaaoud
Abaaoud, was a Belgian of Moroccan descent who had grown up in Molenbeek. He had been a childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam and had a criminal record. He joined IS forces in Syria and on his return to Europe had directed the Verviers terrorist cell from Athens in Greece. In July 2015, he was sentenced by a Belgian court in absentia to 20 years in prison for recruiting jihadists, and an international arrest warrant was issued for him. The ringleader of the Paris attacks, he also had involvement in the planning of other terrorist attacks in France and Belgium.Abaaoud was one of the three gunmen who drove through the 10th and 11th arrondissements of Paris, stopping at three junctions to open fire upon people on café and restaurant terraces. While one gunman then detonated his suicide vest, Abaaoud and the third gunman abandoned their car and went into hiding. They were killed in a police raid on a flat in Saint-Denis on 18 November 2015, while planning a further attack on Paris. Also killed in the raid was Abaaoud's cousin Hasna Aït Boulahcen, who had provided them with the hideout.
Ibrahim Abdeslam
Ibrahim Abdeslam was the older brother of Salah Abdeslam. He grew up in Molenbeek, was involved in petty crime and ran a café-bar, Café Les Béguines, which was a centre for drug dealing and Islamic State propaganda. After a failed attempt to reach Syria, he was questioned by local police but was not arrested.After shooting people in cafés and restaurants in the 10th and 11th arrondissements, he blew himself up at the Comptoir Voltaire restaurant on the boulevard Voltaire.
Chakib Akrouh
Akrouh was a Belgian national of Moroccan descent. He had travelled to Syria in 2013 and had been sentenced in absentia to five years in prison while he was there.Akrouh was one of the restaurant gunmen and blew himself up using a suicide vest during the police raid on the flat in Saint-Denis five days later. It took police two months to identify him using DNA samples.
Bataclan theatre attackers
Three gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked the Bataclan theatre on 13 November 2015 using AKMs and taking hostages. All three were French nationals who had travelled to Syria in 2013 and returned to Europe via the migrant route, being picked up in Hungary in September 2015 by Salah Abdeslam and driven to Brussels, where they stayed in the terrorist cell hideouts until driving to Paris on 12 November. They were all killed when police raided the Bataclan.Samy Amimour
Amimour was a 28-year-old French national of Algerian descent from the Paris suburb of Drancy. He was followed by the intelligence services after making plans to travel to Yemen and was the subject of an international arrest warrant. He was shot by two police officers who entered the Bataclan about ten minutes after the attack started. His suicide vest was detonated as he fell.Omar Ismail Mostefaï
Mostefai was a 29-year-old French national of Algerian and Portuguese descent who grew up in the Paris suburb of Courcouronnes. He had been involved with petty crime and was on a list of suspected Islamic radicals. He was killed with Mohamed-Aggad during the final police assault on the Bataclan.Foued Mohamed-Aggad
Mohamed-Aggad was a 23-year-old French national of Moroccan and Algerian descent from Wissembourg. He was killed with Mostefaï during the final police assault on the Bataclan.2016 Brussels attackers
On 22 March 2016 there were co-ordinated attacks on Brussels Airport at Zaventem and on a train leaving Maalbeek/Maelbeek metro station in central Brussels.Airport bombers
Two suicide bombers detonated bombs in the departure hall of the airport, while a third fled without detonating his bomb.Ibrahim El Bakraoui
Ibrahim El Bakraoui was a Belgian-Moroccan national who grew up in the Laeken district of Brussels. He had a criminal record and had served time in prison for injuring a police officer during an armed robbery in 2010.Najim Laachraoui
Laachraoui was a Belgian-Moroccan national who grew up in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels. He travelled to Syria in 2013 and on his return was collected by Salah Adbdeslam in Hungary and taken to hideouts in Brussels, where he fabricated the suicide vests used in the Paris attacks and the bombs used in the Brussels attacks. He was the second bomber at the airport.Mohamed Abrini
Abrini is a Belgian national of Moroccan descent who grew up in Molenbeek and was a childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam. He had a long criminal record, had spent time in prison and had briefly travelled to Syria in 2015. He was involved in the planning of the Paris attacks and had accompanied the ten attackers to Paris on 12 November 2015, before returning to Brussels later that night and going into hiding. Arrested 8 April 2016, he admitted to being the "man in a hat" who had been captured on CCTV at the airport alongside the suicide bombers and had fled without detonating his bomb.In June 2023, at the Paris attacks trial, Abrini was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years. In December 2022 he went on trial in Brussels for his role in the bombings. Verdicts were delivered on 25 July 2023; Abrini was convicted of terrorist-related murder and attempted murder. He was given a 30-year prison sentence.