ELIMINATED
- Full name: Yacine Azzaoui
- Pseudonym: Abu Hamza al-Belgiki
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Syria, fmr Belgium
- Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN]
Yacine Azzaoui (°1990) was a jihadi of North African descent from the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek. As a young man, he became involved with the crime gang of Khalid Zerkani.1 Like his companions, Azzaoui increasingly turned to religion in the early 2010s. He married convert to Islam Mélissa Frangi in October 2012 and got in contact with notorious Brussels-based Islamist Jean-Louis Denis.2 Azzaoui was also close to members of the Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN] that would go on to form a cell in Verviers.3
By 2014, Azzaoui had become an ardent supporter of the jihadi cause in Syria. He and his wife went on to recruit Muslim families to emigrate to territory under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].4 They reportedly convinced at least four families, including a Chechen mother and her children from Maastricht. In August 2014, Azzaoui himself also went to Syria and joined the forces of the DaIISh.5 His wife was arrested at a Belgian airport as she tried to join him in January 2015.6 Little is known about Azzaoui’s activities in Syria. At one point, he is known to have threatened to kill a jihad expert living in Belgium.7 Azzaoui was allegedly killed during fighting in Deir ez-Zour in May 2017.8
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