Ibrahim El Bakraoui ( ar, إبراهيم البكراوي; 9 October 1986 – 22 March 2016) was a Belgian-Moroccan terrorist, confirmed to be one of the suicide bombers at the

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport, nl, Luchthaven Brussel, vls, Vliegpling Brussel, german: Flughafen Brüssel is an international airport northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In 2019, more than 26 million passengers arrived or departed at Bruss ...

in the

2016 Brussels bombings On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium were carried out by the Islamic State. Three coordinated suicide bombings occurred: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station on the Brussels m ...

Personal background

Ibrahim El Bakraoui was born on 9 October 1986 in Brussels and raised in

Laken () or () is a residential suburb in the north-western part of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. It belongs to the municipality of the City of Brussels and is mostly identified by the Belgian postal code: 1020. Prior to 1921, it was a sep ...

, a residential district in northwestern Brussels. He held dual Belgian and Moroccan nationality. His father, a retired butcher and devout Muslim, emigrated from Morocco; his mother was described as "conservative and reclusive". His brother

Khalid Khalid (variants include Khaled and Kalid; Arabic: خالد) is a popular Arabic male given name meaning "eternal, everlasting, immortal", and it also appears as a surname.

has been identified as the suicide bomber at

Maalbeek metro station Maelbeek ( French, former Dutch spelling) or Maalbeek (Dutch, ) is a Brussels Metro station in the City of Brussels, Belgium. Its name originates from the Maalbeek stream. The station opened as a ''premetro'' (underground tram) station on 1 ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 22 March 2016. In January 2010, he was involved in the attempted robbery of a

currency exchange A bureau de change (plural bureaux de change, both ) (British English) or currency exchange (American English) is a business where people can exchange one currency for another. Nomenclature Although originally French, the term "bureau de chang ...

office, where he shot at police with a Kalashnikov rifle while providing a lookout for his accomplices. One police officer was shot in the leg but survived. The Mayor of Brussels,

Freddy Thielemans Freddy Thielemans (11 September 1944 – 29 January 2022) was a Belgian socialist politician who was the mayor of the City of Brussels from 2001 to 2013, and previously also for a period in 1994. Freddy Thielemans learnt to play rugby with Br ...

, and the Mayor of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek,

Philippe Moureaux Philippe Moureaux (12 April 1939 – 15 December 2018) was a Belgian politician, senator, mayor of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and professor of economic history at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He held the honorary title of Minister of State an ...

, described the shooting as a "''fait divers''" (a small daily news item) and "normal in a large city", causing controversy. Later in 2010, Ek Bakraoui was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released on

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

in 2014 under the condition that he did not leave the country for longer than a month. Following his release from prison, he collected €25,000 in Belgian government benefits until December 2015. He failed to abide by the conditions of parole and was sought again by the authorities.

Manhunt and terrorist activities

According to the authorities in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, they arrested El Bakraoui as a "suspected terrorist" in June 2015 and deported him to Europe, where he chose to go to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Belgian authorities were informed of the detention and deportation, but they apparently ignored the warnings, and the Netherlands released El Bakraoui after failing to establish any link to terrorism. El Bakraoui and his brother Khalid were known to the Belgian authorities. Unlike other radicalised ISIL adherents, who started as petty criminals, the men had a history of committing more serious crimes. They were believed to have rented an apartment that housed some of the assailants involved in 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 ...

and supplied ammunition for them. On 15 March 2016, the two brothers evaded capture during a police raid in Brussels. On 16 March 2016, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) in the United States sent information about them to authorities in the

. They had been tracking Ibrahim El Bakraoui since September 2015. Authorities found a laptop belonging to El Bakraoui inside a

waste container A waste container, also known as a dustbin, garbage can, and trash can is a type of container that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "rubbish", "basket" and "bin" are more common in British English usage; "trash" and "can" a ...

near a house raided following the bombings. The laptop had a suicide note stored on it, in which El Bakraoui stated that he was "stressed out", felt unsafe, and was "afraid of ever-lasting eternity". It also contained images of the home and the office of the

Belgian Prime Minister german: Premierminister von Belgien , insignia = State Coat of Arms of Belgium.svg , insigniasize = 100px , insigniacaption = Coat of arms , insigniaalt = , flag = Government ...

, Charles Michel, among information on multiple other locations in Brussels. El Bakraoui has been identified as one of the suicide bombers at the Brussels airport on 22 March 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakraoui, Ibrahim El 1986 births 2016 deaths Suicide bombers Berber Islamists Moroccan Islamists Belgian people of Moroccan-Berber descent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members Perpetrators of the 2016 Brussels bombings Islamic terrorism in Belgium

Personal background

Manhunt and terrorist activities

See also

References