Sofiane el-Fassila ( ar, سفيان الفصيلة), also known as Harek Zoheir حارك زهير, (born 1975 – 6 October 2007) served as the second-in-command of Al Qaeda in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

until

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

n security forces killed him.A Top Algeria Al-Qaida Affiliate Killed
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Life and militant activity

Sofiane born in 1975 in Sidi Daoud in the region of Dellys, and he became a militant in the Algerian jihadist group

Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ( ar, الجماعة السلفية للدعوة والقتال), known by the French acronym GSPC ('), was an Algerian terrorist faction in the Algerian Civil War founded in 1998 by Hassan Hattab, a ...

in 1994. In 2006, he was appointed by

Abdelmalek Droukdel Abdelmalek Droukdel ( ar, عبد المالك درودكال; 20 April 1970 – 3 June 2020), also known by his alias as Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud ( ar, أبو مصعب عبد الودود), was the emir, or leader, of the Algerian Islamic militant ...

as the head of central zone of AQIM's operating space. The following year, following the Droukdel's oath of allegiance to al-Qaeda dubbing of Droukdel to the rank of "

emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...

" of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Sofiane became one of his closest commanders. Involved in numerous terrorist attacks, Sofiane was known to be the head of a network specialized in arms trafficking, a cell of which was dismantled in

Berriane Berriane (from Tamazight: ''Bergan'') ( ar, بريان) is a medium-sized town and commune in the south of Algeria, coextensive with Bérianne District, in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. It is located in the north of the Sahara desert, in the extr ...

in 2006. Sofiane was presented as the brain of the attacks of 11 April 2007 in Algiers, perpetrated against the Government Palace in the heart of the capital. However, some sources agree that the real coordinator of the attacks was Sid Ali Rachid, also known as Ali Dix, presented as the "military advisor" of Droukdel. In June 2007, the Court of Boumerdès sentenced him ''in absentia'' to 20 years imprisonment and then to life imprisonment for several cases of terrorism. Harek Zoheir died on 6 October 2007, killed in a counter-terrorism operation by the Algerian security forces in the Boghni region of Kabylia. Two other fighters are also killed during the operation.http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-10-1217438287_x.htm

References

External links

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) (INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST SYMBOLS DATABASE)
1975 births People from Ben Choud 2007 deaths Algerian al-Qaeda members 21st-century Algerian people {{crime-bio-stub