Fabien Clain
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Fabien Clain (30 January 1978,
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
– 20 February 2019, Al-Baghuz Fawqani, Syria) was a purported veteran jihadist terrorist loyal to the
Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
. 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 The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
in the suburbs of
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
. Clain and friends found themselves in a village to the south of Toulouse, Artigat, 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 Mohammed Merah (10 October 1988 – 22 March 2012) was a French jihadist who admitted to killing seven people, including three children, in several shootings in southwestern France in March 2012. He was killed following a police siege and st ...
, and Sabri Essid. He created a prayer room in his home and preached hatred against Jews and Americans and urged jihad. On 12 December 2006, two of his followers, Essid and Bala, were intercepted by the Syrian Army 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 The Toulouse and Montauban shootings were a series of Islamist terrorism, Islamist terrorist attacksFoley, Frank. ''Countering Terrorism in Britain and France''. Cambridge University Press, 2013. p. 38. committed by Mohammed Merah in March 201 ...
, Clain was still in French prison in March 2012 when
Mohammed Merah Mohammed Merah (10 October 1988 – 22 March 2012) was a French jihadist who admitted to killing seven people, including three children, in several shootings in southwestern France in March 2012. He was killed following a police siege and st ...
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 Villejuif () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Name The earliest reference to Villejuif appears in a bill signed by the Pope Callixtus II on 27 November 1119. It refers to Villa Jud ...
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
ormer Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any of a group of small to very large marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae. Other common names are ear shells, sea ears, and, rarely, muttonfish or mutto ...
owners. Clain released an audio recording on the day after the November 2015 Paris attacks 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 The Battle of Baghuz Fawqani was an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), assisted by Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) airstrikes, artillery, and special forces personnel, that began on 9 February ...
. In a video released in April 2019, he was thanked by
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...
for his work. His brother Jean-Michel Clain was killed in Syria on 5 May 2019 from a
drone attack Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakis ...
.


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