Samy Amimour

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 cell is connected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a jihadist terrorist organisation primarily based in Syria and Iraq.

Background

On 13 November 2015, a group of nine ISIL-inspired terrorists carried out a series of coordinated terrorist attacks across the French capital, Paris; 130 people died in the attacks, as were seven of the nine attackers. The remaining two attackers were tracked down five days later and killed in the 2015 Saint-Denis raid along with a third terrorist.

The police manhunt for further accomplices led them to Belgian capital, Brussels. Between the 21st and 25th of November, the city was placed in lockdown due to the potential of a serious terrorist attack occurring. On 15th March 2016, a police raid occurred in a house in Brussels in which a man was killed whilst others managed to evade police capture. A second raid occurred three days later on 18th March in which suspects were arrested. A second major attack then occurred on 22 March in Brussels in which coordinated bombings at the airport and at a metro station killed 32 people as well as three of the five attackers.

In June 2022, a total of 20 men were convicted of being involved in the terror cell that planned the Paris attacks.

2015 Paris assailants

Three teams, comprising three people each, executed the November 2015 Paris attacks. They wore explosive vests and belts with identical detonators. Seven perpetrators died at the scenes of their attacks. The other two were killed five days later during the Saint-Denis police raid.

Stade de France attackers

Three suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Stade de France:

Bilal Hadfi

Bilal Hadfi, a 20-year-old French citizen, Moroccan descent, who had been living in Belgium. Hadfi attempted to enter the Stade de France but blew himself up nearby after being denied entry. He spent time in Syria and was a suspected jihadist. In the months before the attacks, he was active on social media, posting pro-jihadist messages, and communicated with a Libyan branch of ISIL. Belgian prosecutors knew Hadfi had gone to fight in Syria but did not know of his return to the EU.

"Ahmad al-Mohammad"

Another bomber carried a passport belonging to a 25-year-old Syrian named "Ahmad al-Mohammad". A passport-holder claiming to be a Syrian refugee with that name was registered on Leros in October upon his arrival from Turkey. The dead attacker's fingerprints matched those taken at the registration on Leros. French officials concluded that "Ahmad al-Mohammad" is probably a dead Syrian soldier whose passport was stolen after he was killed in Syria. ISIS identified him as "Ukasah al-Iraqi", indicating that he was from Iraq. This was later confirmed in January 2017 when a declassified French intelligence file identified the bomber as Ammar Ramadan Mansour Mohamad al-Sabaawi, an Iraqi in his twenties from Mosul. ISIS paid al-Sabaawi's family $5,000 and a flock of sheep after his death.

"M. al-Mahmod"

The third bomber has not been named by French police yet, but his image released by the authorities has been matched by the BBC
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