Ahmad Salama Mabruk ( ar, الشيخ أحمد سلامة مبروك; 1956 – 3 October 2016), known as Abu Faraj al-Masri ( ar, أبو الفرج المصري), was a senior leader in the Syrian militant group

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

and was previously a leader in

Jabhat al-Nusra Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

and the

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

militant groups. He was present alongside Abu Muhammad al-Julani at the announcement of the creation of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. He was one of 14 people subjected to

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpos ...

by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

before the 2001 declaration of a

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

Life

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

graduate of

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

, Mabrouk graduated alongside

Mustafa Hamza Mustafa Hamza (born 1956) is an Egyptian commander of the military branch of the al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya. He was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court in the Returnees from Afghanistan case. It is believed he took part in the 1981 as ...

Al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...

Weekly.Ahram.org
, The Hamza connection, 19 January 2005 He then joined the Egyptian Army as a reserve officer. In 1981, Mabruk was arrested following the

assassination of President Anwar Sadat Anwar Sadat, the 3rd President of Egypt, was assassinated on 6 October 1981 during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr, during which the Egyptian Army had crossed the Suez Canal and taken back a small part of t ...

, and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. Released in 1988, Mabruk moved to Afghanistan where

Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, ( ar, سيد إمام الشريف, ''Sayyid ‘Imām ash-Sharīf''; born 8 August 1950), aka "Dr. Fadl" and Abd Al-Qader Bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz, El-Zayyat, Montasser, "The Road to al-Qaeda", 2004. tr. by Ahmed Fakry has been des ...

was gathering EIJ members. However, al-Sharif was replaced by

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with a ...

as leader of the group in 1991, and the following year Mabruk moved to

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

. In 1994, Mabruk's 15-year-old son Musab, as well as the 15-year-old Ahmed, son of

Mohammed Sharaf Mohammed Sharaf (born 1961) is an Emirati businessman, who was the Group CEO of Dubai Ports World, an Emirati ports operator. He was the Group CEO of DP World until December 2015. Early years and education Sharaf earned a degree in business adm ...

, were captured by the

Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate The General Intelligence Service ( ar, جهاز المخابرات العامة ; GIS), often referred to as the Mukhabarat ( ar, المخابرات ) is an Egyptian intelligence agency responsible for providing national security intelligence, b ...

and sexually abused. They were

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

ed with a videotape of the sodomy until they agreed to act as informants against their fathers' group. Musab went through his father's files and photocopied them for the Egyptians, but the Sudanese intelligence service saw the covert meetings and alerted al-Jihad, recommending that they treat the boys leniently if they confessed. After Tariq Anwar found explosives in Musab's possession, al-Zawahiri convened a

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

court, where Musab confessed he had been given the bomb by the Egyptians which he was told to detonate at the next

Shura Shura ( ar, شُورَىٰ, translit=shūrā, lit=consultation) can for example take the form of a council or a referendum. The Quran encourages Muslims to decide their affairs in consultation with each other. Shura is mentioned as a praisewor ...

council meeting. They were each found guilty of "sodomy, treason, and attempted murder", and sentenced to death by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...

. The trial, and the execution, were filmed and copies of the film were distributed by al-Jihad. Bergen, Peter, ''The Osama bin Laden I Know'', 2006. The incident "catastrophically undermined" Mabruk's position in the organisation, and when the Sudanese found out about the executions, al-Jihad was ordered to leave the country. Sageman, Marc, ''Understanding Terror Networks'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p.45 Khan El Khalili bazar

Mabruk ran al-Jihad operations under the

front organisation A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...

''Bavari-C''. He was a vocal critic of the group's close connections to

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, his group is designated ...

, and criticised its leadership for allowing such a close relationship. In 1995, he was sentenced to death ''in absentia'' for plotting to bomb the Khan el-Khalili market in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

, along with

Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar was a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist terrorist group active since the 1970s. The ADL dubbed him the "propaganda chief" of the militant organisation. He was one of 14 people subjected to extraordi ...

and

Adel Abdel Bary Adel Mohammed Abdel Magid Abdel Bari ( ar, عادل محمد عبد المجيد عبد الباري; born 24 June 1960) is an Egyptian terrorist. He was, together with fellow Egyptian citizen Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous until the latte ...

. Throughout 1996, he maintained telephone contact with Canadian

Mahmoud Jaballah ) is an Egyptian who has been detained in Canada without charge on a "security certificate" since August 2001 due to his association with members of al-Jihad.Tab 9, MCI et al v. Mahmoud Jaballah, DES-6-99, Transcript of Proceedings, 8 June 1999, p. 95 At some point in the year, he traveled to

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...

for several months where he was employed by the

Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage The Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage () (RIHS) is a Kuwait-based NGO with branches in a number of countries. Spain According to the Spanish intelligence agency CNI, Kuwait provided funding and aid to Islamic associations and congregation ...

.Deliso, Christopher. "The Coming Balkan Caliphate", 2007. p. 34 His daughter married

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah ( ar, عبد الله أحمد عبد الله; 6 June 1963 – 7 August 2020) (''nom de guerre'' Abu Mohammed al-Masri) was a high-ranking Egyptian member of al-Qaeda. He has been described as al-Qaeda's most experienced ...

.United States v. Usama bin Laden
Transcript of Day 8
/ref>

Arrest and imprisonment in Russia

On 1 December 1996, Mabruk and

Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi (محمود هشام محمد مصطفى الحناوي), also known by his kunya ''Abu Sahl'', was an Islamic militant with ties to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and later Al-Qaeda. He was killed in Chechnya in 2005. Early l ...

- both carrying false passports - accompanied

on a trip to

Chechnya Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the ...

, where they hoped to re-establish the faltering al-Jihad. Their leader was traveling under the name ''Abdullah Imam Mohammed Amin'', and trading on his medical credentials for legitimacy. The group switched vehicles three times but was arrested within hours of entering Russian territory and spent five months in a

Makhachkala Makhachkala ( rus, Махачкала, , məxətɕkɐˈla, links=yes),; av, Махӏачхъала, Maħaçqala; ce, ХӀинжа-ГӀала, Hinƶa-Ġala; az, Маһачгала, Mahaçqala; nog, Махачкала; lbe, Махачкъала; ...

prison awaiting trial. The trio pleaded innocence, maintaining their disguise and having other al-Jihad members from ''Bavari-C'' send the Russian authorities pleas for leniency for their "merchant" colleagues who had been wrongly arrested; and Russian Member of Parliament Nadyr Khachiliev echoed the pleas for their speedy release as al-Jihad members

Ibrahim Eidarous Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous () (c. 1957 – July 2008) was an Egyptian militant who was alleged to have led the London-based chapter of al-Jihad. He was held in the custody of the United Kingdom from 1999,

and Tharwat Salah Shehata traveled to

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North Ca ...

to plead for their release. Shehata received permission to visit the prisoners and is believed to have smuggled them $3000 which was later confiscated from their cell, and to have given them a letter which the Russians didn't bother to translate. In April 1997, they were sentenced to six months, and were subsequently released a month later and ran off without paying their court-appointed attorney Abdulkhalik Abdusalamov his $1,800 legal fee citing their "poverty". Shehata was sent on to Chechnya, where he met with Ibn Khattab. Zawahiri and Mabruk accompanied al-Hennawi to

Baku, Azerbaijan Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

where he'd managed to secure himself a position. In June 1998, tired of Mabruk's criticisms of his relationship with bin Laden, al-Zawahiri allegedly banished him from al-Jihad's central operations. He subsequently remained in Azerbaijan when Zawahiri left, and set up his militant cell under the ''Bavari-C'' name, replacing Eidarous as the regional commander, after his transfer to London.CNS.Miis.edu
Copy of indictment, USA v. Usama bin Laden et al. S(6)98 Crim.1023 (LBS), District Court of Southern New York, June 1999. Emphasis on page 28.

1998 arrest in Azerbaijan

In August 1998, a

wiretap Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

ped phone call tipped off the Israeli

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

that a rendezvous between

Ihab Saqr A member of the Vanguards of Conquest, Ihab Abdallah Saqr ( ar, إيهاب صقر, alternatively ''Ihab Muhammad Saqr'') was believed to have coordinated the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad and was a high-priority target for the CIA w ...

and an Iranian MOIS official was planned in

. Without a bureau in Azerbaijan, they contacted the American

, who allowed a Canadian-raised Mossad agent to unofficially tag along as seven or eight CIA officers based in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

oversaw a local police raid on the Baku hotel room on 20 August. When the Azeri police received confirmation that Saqr was in his hotel room drinking coffee with others, they stormed the room grabbing all three people they found present and brought them still barefoot to the police station. It was now realised that the Iranian official hadn't yet shown up, and they had instead arrested Saqr, as well as Mabruk and Essam Marzouk. They were brought to the police station, where the Mossad agent says the police "beat the crap out of them". His

laptop computer A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

was seized, and yielded information on an

n cell, leading to a raid which saw five more arrested and extradited to Egypt. It also ostensibly confirmed the identity of more than a hundred others who were, or had been, arrested based on their links to the group. An alternative telling of his arrest suggests that he had been arrested outside a Baku restaurant after American authorities had been tipped off by an

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informant ...

inside al-Jihad.

Imprisonment in Egypt

Under interrogation and alleged torture, Mabruk claimed that al-Jihad had acquired

chemical weapons A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...

over the past two years and gave up the names and locations of dozens of al-Jihad members. Although previously sentenced to death ''in absentia'', he was instead sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at the Huckstep Military Court. While in prison, he began to lead a militant ''al-Marj'' group in the Abu Zabal prison camp. In the summer of 2004, he used this position to denounce an attempt by

Nabil Na'eem Nabeel Naeem Abdul Fattah ( ar, نبيل نعيم عبد الفتاح) is the founder of the Democratic Jihad Party as well as a contributor to Asharq Al-Awsat. He was also the leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad from 1988 until 1992. He was arrest ...

to preach that violence was counter-productive to jihad. That July, it was announced that his son Ibrahim, who had worked as an "educator" close to al-Jihad, had been killed in a Predator drone airstrike in the

northwest Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followi ...

that had killed

Midhat Mursi Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar ( ar, مدحت مرسي السيد عمر), also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri ( ar, أبو خباب المصري) (29 April 1953, Egypt – 28 July 2008, Pakistan) was a chemist and alleged top bomb maker for al-Qaeda an ...

. In December 2007, al-Zawahiri announced he would take questions from the public and attempt to answer as many as he could. The 846th question asked if he knew whether it was true that Mabruk had been arrested while attempting to purchase red arsenic. The following year, Zawahiri mentioned Mabruk as one of those leading the campaign to protest unfair treatment by Egyptian prison authorities who had neglected the medical needs of imprisoned militants.

Release

Mabruk was released from prison following the

Egyptian revolution of 2011 The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January revolution ( ar, ثورة ٢٥ يناير; ), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police ho ...

. By 2016, Mabruk had travelled to Syria, where he joined the central leadership of

al-Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

, the Syrian branch of

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

Death

At approximately 5:15 pm on 3 October 2016, while being driven down a suburban street in the rebel stronghold of

Jisr al-Shughur Jisr ash-Shughūr ( ar, جِسْرُ ٱلشُّغُورِ, jisr aš-šuġūr, , also rendered as ''Jisser ash-Shughour'' and other spellings), known in antiquity as Seleucobelus ( el, Σελευκόβηλος, translit=Seleukóbēlos), is a city 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 ...

, Mabruk's car was hit by a drone strike, killing him and the driver instantaneously. Jabhat Fateh al-Sham confirmed Mabruk's death on a Twitter account run by the group.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mabruk, Ahmad Salama 1956 births 2016 deaths Egyptian al-Qaeda members Egyptian Islamic Jihad Egyptian military officers Egyptian people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of Egypt People subject to extraordinary rendition by the United States People from Giza Egyptian expatriates in Afghanistan Egyptian expatriates in Syria Assassinated al-Nusra Front members Deaths by American airstrikes during the Syrian civil war Salafi jihadists 2016 murders in Syria