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 ...
in
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
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 ...
. 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.
See also
*
Brussels ISIL terror cell
The Brussels ISIL terror cell were a group accused of involvement in large-scale terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 (130 killed) and Brussels in early 2016 (32 killed), as well as other attacks against European targets. The terror cel ...
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