Khalid El Bakraoui Explained

Khalid El Bakraoui
Birth Date:12 January 1989
Birth Place:Brussels, Belgium
Death Place:Brussels, Belgium
Status:Deceased
Known For:Involvement in the 2016 Brussels bombings

Khālid El Bakraoui (Arabic: 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 2016 Brussels bombings.

Early life

El Bakraoui was raised in Laken, a residential district in northwestern Brussels. His father, a retired butcher and devout Muslim, emigrated from Morocco; his mother was described as "conservative and reclusive".[1] His brother Ibrahim has been identified as one of two suicide bombers at Brussels Airport.

Criminal history

Arrests

On 27 October 2009, he was one of three men involved in a bank robbery, in which they kidnapped an employee and forced her to drive them to her workplace in Brussels and deactivate the alarm. They made off with €41,000. About two weeks later, Khalid stole a vehicle and was later found with it and a number of other stolen vehicles in a warehouse. Though he was detained, he was not charged at the time.

In 2011, El Bakraoui was arrested for the possession of Kalashnikov rifles. In September 2011, he was convicted of the carjackings, possession of weapons, and the 2009 bank robbery, being sentenced to five years in prison. He was released from prison after serving most of his sentence.

In May 2015, following his release, El Bakraoui was arrested upon meeting with a former criminal accomplice, which violated a term of his parole, but a judge released him because he continued to meet the rest of his parole conditions. From October 2015, he failed his parole appointments and abandoned his address, resulting in a cancelled parole as of February 2016.[2]

International warrant of arrest and terrorist activities

In August 2015, Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest.[3] Two further arrest warrants were issued for El Bakraoui on 11 December 2015, one international and one European.[4] Both were issued by a Paris judge investigating the November 2015 Paris attacks, because El Bakraoui, using false documents,[5] rented the Charleroi house where fingerprints of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of those attacks, as well as an involved suicide bomber, Bilal Hadfi, were found.[6]

According to a report by the De Morgen daily, Belgian authorities, acting after they learned, in the summer of 2015, of his call on friends to help him obtain as many Kalashnikov chargers as possible, searched El Bakraoui's home in October 2015, found evidence of "calls to jihad" and "images of known terrorists", but found no weapons and therefore did not make an arrest. [7]

On 15 March 2016, El Bakraoui and his brother Ibrahim El Bakraoui evaded capture during a police raid in Brussels.[8] On 16 March 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States sent information about them to authorities in the Netherlands.[9] The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division also informed the Dutch embassy liaison in Washington, that they were wanted for "terrorism, extremism and recruitment".[10] [11]

Death

Khalid El Bakraoui has been identified as the suicide bomber at Maalbeek metro station in Brussels on 22 March 2016.[12]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui: From Bank Robbers to Brussels Bombers. The New York Times. 24 March 2016. 25 March 2016.
  2. News: Bélgica buscaba desde diciembre a uno de los kamikazes de Bruselas por sus vínculos con los ataques a París. 28 March 2016. Público. Spanish.
  3. Web site: Brothers Among 3 Brussels Suicide Attackers; Another Assailant Is Sought. The New York Times. 23 March 2016. 23 March 2016. Alissa J. Rubin. Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura. Aurelien Breeden.
  4. Web site: Khalid El Bakraoui avait loué sous un faux nom une planque belge pour les commandos du 13 novembre à Paris. Le Soir. 24 March 2016.
  5. News: LAURENCE NORMAN. Belgium Launches Terror Probe as ISIS Claims Machete Attack. 8 August 2016. The Wall Street Journal. Khalid el Barkaoui, a suicide bomber in the Brussels attacks who had been wanted in connection with the Paris attacks, was suspected of using falsified documents to rent a house in Charleroi that may have served as a base for the Paris terrorists, authorities said in March..
  6. Web site: Belgian police find safe houses used by Paris suspects. 13 January 2016. Yahoo News. 28 March 2016. 8 April 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160408104714/https://www.yahoo.com/news/belgium-police-3-safehouses-used-paris-attacks-suspects-072932394.html. dead.
  7. News: Brussels bomber's home was searched days before Paris attacks: report . Politico.eu . 4 March 2018. 3 March 2018.
  8. Web site: Brussels Attacks: El Bakraoui Brothers Were Jailed for Carjackings, Shootout. NBC News. 23 March 2016. 23 March 2016. Alastair Jamieson. Annick M'Kele.
  9. Web site: FBI warned Dutch about El Bakraoui brothers week before Brussels attacks. Reuters. 29 March 2016. 1 April 2016.
  10. News: Jennifer Rankin. FBI tipped off Dutch police about Bakraoui brothers. 30 March 2016. The Guardian.
  11. News: Anthony Deutsch. Dutch minister misinforms parliament again about Belgium attack intelligence. 31 March 2016. Euronews. Reuters. 30 March 2016.
  12. News: Brothers ID'd as suicide bombers in Belgium, 1 suspect 'on the run'. CNN. 24 March 2016.