Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Abdelhamid Abaaoud
Born	1988
Died	November 2015 (Age 26)
Nationality	Belgian
Supposed perpetrator of	2015-11 Paris attacks
The official "mastermind" behind the mass murder in Paris - died conveniently in police shootout.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud or Abdel-Hamid Abu Oud was a 27 year old Belgian national of Moroccan origin who was named by French investigators as responsible for the mass murder in Paris of 13 November 2015 which killed at least 129 people.

Abaaoud was "the public face of the French-speaking jihadi world", but was seemingly able to travel easily in Europe and to Syria, and plan and obtain supplies for a major terrorist attack, indicating strongly close ties between Islamist terrorist circles and French intelligence services.

On 19 November 2015, Abaaoud's death was announced by the Paris prosecutor following a police shootout during a raid on a flat in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis.

Background

Abdelhamid Abaaoud grew up in Molenbeek, a district of Brussels known for its many Arab immigrant. The Independent stated that he is an associate of Salah Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim died in the Paris attack.

Abaaoud and Salah Abdeslam were both jailed in Belgium in 2010 for armed robbery.

Terror cell

Belgian authorities have suggested that Abaaoud may have helped helped organise and finance a terror cell in Verviers, eastern Belgium.

Foiled attack

An IS propaganda video in 2014 showed Abaaoud in a vehicle that was dragging mutilated bodies behind it. Abaaoud was also linked to a foiled terror attack aboard a Thalys train in August this year. A gunman, Ayoub El-Khazzani, was overpowered by passengers aboard the train in northern France. In that case, and in a foiled attack on a church in Villejuif, France, investigators listed Abaaoud as a suspect.

The BBC stated that Abaaoud persuaded his 13-year-old brother to join him in Syria.

2015-11 Paris attacks

When Abaaoud was identified as a possible orchestrator of the 2015-11 Paris attacks, David Thomson, a journalist specializing in jihad in France and author of French Jihadists, wrote: "if this report is substantiated, what would be involved would be far more than astonishment at a meltdown of the security services." Thomson explained, "One must understand who this man is. He is the public face of the French-speaking jihadi world. His face was displayed for several days last year round-the-clock on all France's major news channels. In 2013 and 2014, on his own Facebook page, under his true identity, he posted videos of himself on the Syrian front, grenade launcher in hand, calling for people to join him."

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