Fabien Clain (30 January 1978,
Toulouse,
France – 20 February 2019,
Al-Baghuz Fawqani
Al-Baghuz Fawqani ( ar, ٱلْبَاغُوز فَوْقَانِي, al-Bāġūz Fawqānī) is a town in Syria, located in Abu Kamal District, Deir ez-Zor. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Al-Baghuz Fawqani had a populatio ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
) was a purported veteran jihadist terrorist loyal to the
Islamic State. He had French nationality and was of
Réunionnais origin.
Personal background
Clain converted to Islam in the 1990s. He appears to have been radicalized in the first half of the 2000s, along with his younger brother Jean-Michel Clain.
After living in the Netherlands from 2003,
in 2004, the Clain brothers went to Egypt with their wives
to study the
Koran in the suburbs of
Cairo.
Clain and friends found themselves in a village to the south of Toulouse,
Artigat
Artigat is a commune in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region of south-western France.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Artigatois'' or ''Artigatoises''
Geography
Artigat is located some 10 km west by north-west of ...
, around a "guru", Olivier Corel, of Syrian origin. Corel, known as the 'white Emir', served as a "scholar in religion" for the group who met at his home.
Clain reportedly had influence on the group that included brothers, Abdelkader and
Mohammed Merah, and
Sabri Essid. He created a prayer room in his home and preached hatred against Jews and Americans and urged
jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
. On 12 December 2006, two of his followers, Essid and Bala, were intercepted by the
Syrian Army
" (''Guardians of the Homeland'')
, colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive
* Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki
, anniversaries = August 1st
, equipment =
, equipment_label =
, battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Six ...
on the way to fight American troops in Iraq. After a few months of detention in Syria, they were handed over to France.
Terrorist involvement
2009 conviction
Members of this group were charged with terrorist offenses in 2009. Clain was presented as an "organizer" of a group and sentenced to five years in jail.
Group members Essid and Bala were also convicted, but
Olivier Corel and
Abdelkader Merah were acquitted.
Clain is banned from twenty-two French departments.
Toulouse and Montauban shootings
Before the
Toulouse and Montauban shootings, Clain was still in French prison in March 2012 when
Mohammed Merah killed three soldiers as well as a professor and three children in a Jewish school. The two men corresponded by mail while in prison and Clain was accused of conspiracy in the scooter attack.
Clain appears to have gone to Syria after being released from French prison in 2014.
In April 2015, Clain's name came up in the investigation of a planned attack on a church in
Villejuif outside Paris.
The attack failed when the terrorist shot himself in the leg.
At some point before November 2015 Clain uttered threats against
Bataclan due to the alleged Zionism of its
ormerowners.
Clain released an audio recording on the day after the
November 2015 Paris attacks
The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bombers ...
in which he personally claimed responsibility for the attacks.
This "is only the beginning of the storm and a warning for those who want to meditate and remove their lessons" (translation of the recording). The voice recording intonation is reported to be not aggressive but soft, rejoicing in the deaths of the 'idolatrous' at the concert hall and other locations.
Death
On 20 February 2019 Fabien was killed by an airstrike during the
Battle of Baghuz Fawqani. In a video released in April 2019, he was thanked by
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for his work. His brother Jean-Michel Clain was killed in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
on 5 May 2019 from a
drone attack.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clain, Fabien
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members
People from Réunion
Criminals from Toulouse
1978 births
2019 deaths
Converts to Islam
French Islamists