Sammy Djedou (Jihadi Militant, Belgium)

• Full name: Sammy Djedou
• Pseudonym: Abu Musab
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Syria, Belgium
• Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], Jean-Louis Denis Network [JLDN]

Sammy Djedou (°1989) was a Belgian jihadi from the Brussels’ suburb of Laken. The son of a Belgian mother and an Ivorian father, he was raised as a Christian. Djedou converted to Islam as a teenager in the mid-2000s.¹

In the early 2010s, Djedou became a follower of notorious Islamist preacher Jean-Louis Denis and helped out at his Resto du Tawhid charitable organization.² Like many of Denis’ followers, Djedou traveled to Syria in late October 2012.³ He soon fought on the frontlines with jihadi forces. In March 2013, Djedou was injured in battle.⁴

Djedou eventually joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] and quickly ascended through the ranks. He was assigned to the organization’s external operations wing where he came into contact with Taha Falaha [aka Abu Mohammed al-Adnani] who oversaw the group’s campaign of terror against Europe.⁵ Djedou also developed a relationship with French-Tunisian jihadi Boubakr el-Hakim.⁶ He served as a liasion operative between the DaIISh’s leaders and the organization’s cadres in Europe.⁷ Djedou allegedly facilitated communications with the Abdelhamid Abaaoud-led attack teams that were responsible for the November 2015 strikes in Paris.⁸ He later helped coach some of the suicide terrorists who blew themselves up in the March 2016 attacks in Brussels.⁹ At the same time, Djedou also recruited fighters for the DaIISh from his base in Syria.¹⁰

Djedou was killed along with two of his associates in a missile strike by an American drone in Raqqa on Dec. 04, 2016.¹¹