AT LARGE
- Full name: Osama Ahmed Atar
- Pseudonym: possibly Abu Ahmad
- Alternatives: Oussama Attar
- Location: Syria, possibly Belgium
- Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN]
Osama Atar (°ca 1984) is a Belgian jihadi of Moroccan descent from the Brussels’ Laken suburb. He is a scion of a family that is deeply involved in crime.1 As a youth, Atar became an adherent of radical Salafism under the influence of extremist preacher Bassam Ayachi.2 He was the driving force behind his family’s adoption of radical Islamism.3
In the early 2000s, Atar traveled to Syria to study Islam.4 He went to Iraq in 2005 and became a weapons smuggler for jihadi outfits operating in the country.5 Atar disguised his activities by posing as a humanitarian aid worker.6
In February 2005, Atar was arrested after American troops intercepted him while he was transporting weapons near Ramadi, in the Anbar province.7 While in American custody, an Iraqi court sentenced him to ten years in prison.8 Atar spent time at several prison facilities until the American army handed him over to the Iraqi authorities in 2007.9 At one point during his incarceration, he reportedly got acquainted with Ibrahim al-Badri [aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi].10
While serving his sentence in an Iraqi prison, Atar’s family members began lobbying Belgian politicians and human rights activists to work for his release.11 The case generated considerable press attention in Belgium, especially after the family falsely claimed that Atar was suffering from kidney cancer.12 Several left-wing politicians advocated his cause.13 In October 2010, hundreds of his supporters even staged a protest in Brussels.14 The Belgian government began pushing the Iraqi government to release the jihadi. Iraq eventually gave into Belgium’s diplomatic pressure and freed Atar in September 2012.15 He immediately returned to Belgium and disappeared.16
In 2013, Atar was arrested by police in Tunisia. He was suspected of smuggling weapons to local jihadis.17 The authorities released him shortly afterwards due to lack of evidence and Atar again returned to Belgium.18
Atar later traveled to Syria, where he linked up with other Belgian jihadis and eventually joined the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham]. From Syria, Atar is believed to have played an instrumental role in the organization’s campaign of terrorism against Europe. French intelligence services have even identified him as one of the main coordinators of the November 2015 Paris attacks and the March 2016 Brussels bombings.19 Two of the suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the Brussels attacks were family members.20 In June 2016, two other relatives of Atar were arrested when Belgian security forces thwarted a plot to attack the site where soccer fans assemble to watch games on a giant television screen in the nation’s capital.21
In the summer of 2016, Atar was rumored to have returned to Brussels. In August, police raided several houses in the city in an attempt to apprehend him.22 His current whereabouts are unknown.
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