Najm al-'Ashrāwī ( ar, نجم العشراوي, 18 May 1991 – 22 March 2016), also known as Abū Idrīs al-Baljīkī or Soufiane Kayal, was a Belgian-Moroccan

Islamic militant ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term t ...

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 ...

and was one of two suicide bombers at the Brussels Airport 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 ...

. The Islamic State confirmed that he was responsible for making all the explosives used in the November 2015 Paris attacks.

Early life

Laachraoui was born in

Ajdir Ajdir ( Berber: ⴰⵊⴷⵉⵔ) is a small town in northern Morocco, on the Mediterranean coast, near Al Hoceima. It was the capital of the Republic of the Rif from 1922-1925 under the leadership of Abd el-Krim (d.1963) who born there in 1880. ...

Taza Province Taza is a province in the Moroccan region of Fès-Meknès. Its population at the 2004 Census was 743,237 The major cities and towns are* Ajdir, Taza * Aknoul * Matmata * Oued Amlil * Oulad Zbair * Tahla * Tainaste * Taza * Tizi Ouasli * Zrar ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

but raised in the

Schaerbeek (French and archaic Dutch, ) or (contemporary Dutch, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Etterbeek, Evere and S ...

neighbourhood of Brussels, where he attended a Catholic high school. Laachraoui studied engineering at the Université libre de Bruxelles from 2009 to 2010, but did not complete his degree. He then studied

electromechanics In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two system ...

at the Université catholique de Louvain from 2010 to 2011. Laachraoui worked at the Brussels Airport for five years until the end of 2012.

Islamic State

Laachraoui reportedly traveled to Syria in February 2013, where his family lost contact with him. The Islamic State confirmed in Dabiq magazine that he traveled to IS in 2013. He was part of Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen, a group led by Abu Atheer al-Absi. He is described as one of the first to have pledged allegiance to

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 ...

after the dispute between IS and

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 ...

. He participated in several battles against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. He suffered a bullet wound to his leg in battles against

in the city of

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. It was several months after this wound healed that he began to train to carry out the attack in Brussels. The Islamic State confirmed that he was responsible for preparing all of the explosives used during the November 2015 Paris attacks and the

. In 2013 and 2014, he was, according to four ex-hostages, working as a prison guard called "Abou Idriss" for the

. His travel to Syria resulted in the mayor of Schaerbeek declaring that Laachraoui had been removed from the voting rolls in 2015, but being "powerless to do more".

Brussels attack

In February 2016, Laachraoui was suspected of involvement with a possible terrorist cell led by Khalid Zerkani, who recruited fighters in Syria, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the organiser of the November 2015 Paris attacks. He went to trial and was awaiting sentencing at the time of the Brussels bombings, which was scheduled for May 2016. Like the Bakraoui brothers, Laachraoui evaded capture during the police raids on 15 and 18 March 2016 which captured Salah Abdeslam. Laachraoui is believed to be an accomplice of Abdeslam, with whom he travelled across Europe under the false identity of Soufiane Kayal. Laachraoui is also believed to have made the

suicide vest Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...

s used in the attacks against the Bataclan theatre and the Stade de France in Paris. He also rented a house occupied by assailants involved in the Paris attacks. In July 2016, IS released a video celebrating several terrorist attacks that took place during the month of Ramadan showing Mohamed Belkaid, and Laachraoui and displaying his nom de guerre Abu Idris al-Beljiki.

Family

Najim Laachraoui was the brother of taekwondo practitioner Mourad Laachraoui, who won a gold medal at the

2016 European Taekwondo Championships The 2016 European Taekwondo Championships was the 22st edition of the European Taekwondo Championships, and was held in Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the ...

and who was expected to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics, but did not.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laachraoui, Najim 1991 births 2016 deaths Suicide bombers Belgian people of Moroccan-Berber descent Belgian Islamists Berber Islamists Moroccan Islamists Belgian mass murderers Moroccan murderers Moroccan emigrants to Belgium Belgian people of Berber descent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members People from Schaerbeek Perpetrators of the 2016 Brussels bombings Islamic terrorism in Belgium

Early life

Islamic State

Brussels attack

Family

See also

References