Osama Krayem ( ar, أسامة كرايم, born 16 August 1992), also known as Naïm or Naim al Hamed, is a Swedish national of Syrian origin and a suspected terrorist involved 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 ...

.''Paris Match': Qui est Osama Krayem, complice présumé des kamikazes de Bruxelles?
He was one of five men arrested on 8 April 2016 by the Belgian police. He was present at the burning alive of the Jordanian pilot

Muath al-Kasasbeh Muath Safi Yousef al-Kasasbeh ( ar, معاذ صافي يوسف الكساسبة, Muʿaḏ Ṣāfī Yūsuf al-Kasāsibah South Levantine pronunciation: ; 29 May 1988 – 3 January 2015) was a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot who was captur ...

of which Barack Obama described as "vicious".

Personal background

Krayem was born in 1992 in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, Sweden to Palestinian immigrants from Syria and grew up in Rosengård,

Malmö Municipality Malmö Municipality ( sv, Malmö kommun), or City of Malmö (''Malmö stad''), is a Swedish municipality in Skåne County, the southernmost of the counties of Sweden (and conterminous with the historical province (''landskap'') of Scania). Whe ...

. At eleven years old, he participated in the 2005 documentary "Utan gränser – en film om idrott och integration" (''Without Borders - A Film About Sports and Integration''), a film described by Swedish newspaper

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

as "a documentary on how to succeed with integration" of migrants into Swedish society. Krayem is thought to have radicalized in his early twenties, frequently watching videos by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American and Yemeni

imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...

and Islamic lecturer and alleged senior recruiter and motivator involved in planning terrorist operations for the Islamist militant group

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

. Krayem also reportedly tried to recruit other Arab Swedish youth to join the fight 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 ...

.RTBF: Qui est Osama Krayem, l'accompagnateur du kamikaze du metro Maelbeek, interpellé à Laeken?
Until he was arrested 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 8 April 2016, he was one of Europe's most wanted fugitives, considered to be a hardened operative of ISIS. The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that on 20 April 2016 that Belgian authorities spelled the subject's first name as "Ossama," where previously it had been publicised as "Osama." His detention was extended by one month on the same day.

Terrorist activities

Krayem left Sweden sometime in 2014 to join the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

(ISIS) in Syria to fight alongside the anti-Assad Islamic militant group. He was said to be one of the first Muslim Swedes to have left the country to join ISIS. In January 2015, he was identified by the Swedish press yet again in a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

post sent to his brother in Sweden showing him reportedly in Deir ez-Zor,

dressed in military fatigues, standing in front of an ISIS flag and holding an AK-47. On 14 March 2015, he uploaded a film clip to his Facebook page showing an execution of a 19 year old Palestinian from

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Several people from

, among them Krayem's brother and friends, liked the clip along with individuals in Syria. In 2018, Belgian investigators found that Krayem was at the scene where 26-year-old Jordanian air force

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

Moaz al Kasasbeh was

burned to death Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...

by ISIL in January 2015. He later returned to Europe using a false passport travelling the migrant route from Syria to

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 ...

Leros Leros ( el, Λέρος) is a Greek island and municipality in the Dodecanese in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies (171 nautical miles) from Athens's port of Piraeus, from which it can be reached by an 9-hour ferry ride or by a 45-minute flight fr ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

where he presented himself on 20 September 2015 as Naïm Al Hamed (identified as a Syrian national born on 1 January 1988 and originating from

Hama , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

, Syria according to the falsified papers). Under this guise as Naïm Al Hamed, he continued to Europe residing in Belgium. The beginning of October 2015, Krayem allegedly met

Salah Abdeslam Salah Abdeslam ( ar, صلاح عبد السلام, lit=Ṣalāḥ ʿAbd as-Salām; ; born 15 September 1989) is a French Islamic terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 as the sole surviving member of the 10-man unit that carried o ...

in Ulm, Germany to discuss possible cooperation in

terrorist attacks The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terrori ...

. Abdeslam was one of the Belgian suspected terrorists involved in the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks. Fleeing the scene, Abdeslam later went into hiding in

Molenbeek ( French, ) or (Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, from which it is separated ...

, Belgium where he was eventually arrested on 18 March 2016. Krayem is believed to be the man seen on CCTV at the Brussels City 2 shopping centre, where he bought the rucksacks used later for the 22 March 2016 terror attack in

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 Zaventem. His DNA was found in the Schaerbeek (Brussels) apartment used by the Zaventem airport bombers. He was thought to have been the second man alongside bomber

Khalid El Bakraoui Khālid El Bakraoui ( ar, خالد البكراوي; 12 January 1989 – 22 March 2016), also known as Abū Walīd al-Baljīkī, was a Belgian national of Moroccan descent, confirmed to be the suicide bomber at the metro station in the 20 ...

at the

Pétillon metro station Pétillon is a Brussels Metro station on the eastern branch of line 5. It is located in the municipality of Etterbeek, in the eastern part of Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital ...

. El Bakraoui is thought to have carried out the bombing of

Maelbeek 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 17 ...

minutes later on the morning of 22 March 2016. During interrogation, Krayem confessed that he was the second metro bomber and explained that he felt regret at the last moment and therefore never tried to detonate his suicide bomb. On 19 April 2016, Krayem was linked to 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 ...

, as it was determined that his DNA was present in the apartments used by the assailants. In June 2018 he was extradited to France into custody of the National Gendarmerie to be interrogated on his role in the November 13 Paris attack, where 130 were killed. In June 2022 he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for having assisted planning of the Paris attacks including obtained weapons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krayem, Osama 1992 births Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members Islamic terrorism in Sweden Living people People from Malmö Perpetrators of the 2016 Brussels bombings Swedish Islamists Swedish mass murderers Swedish people of Palestinian descent Swedish people of Syrian descent

Personal background

Terrorist activities

See also

References