ELIMINATED
- Full name: Moezeddine Garsallaoui
- Pseudonym: Abu Moez al-Tunisi, Moez al-Qayrawani
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Tunisia, Syria, Switzerland, Belgium, Pakistan, Afghanistan
- Affiliation: Garsallaoui’s Soldiers of the Caliphate [JaK-G], fmr Aroud-Garsallaoui Network [AGN], fmr Base Organization [al-Qa’ida]
Moezeddine Garsallaoui (°1968) was a prolific jihadi from Tunisia. Little is known about his early life. He was reportedly jailed by the Ben Ali regime for some time in the late 1980s.1 During the 1990s, Garsallaoui apparently lived in Syria for a while.2 In May 1997, he moved to Switzerland and received asylum.3 Garsallaoui worked in construction before becoming a software programmer.4
In December 2003, Garsallaoui married Malika el-Aroud during a religious ceremony in Brussels.5 Aroud was the widow of one of the terrorists who killed Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Massoud in September 2001. The couple settled in the Swiss town of Fribourg in 2004.6 From Switzerland, Garsallaoui and his wife began spreading al-Qa’ida propaganda on the internet. In June 2004, Garsallaoui set up a password-protected forum on which the couple distributed jihadi propaganda and published terrorist manuals.7 They later operated the infamous Minbar SOS website which served as one of the most important al-Qa’ida-affiliated outlets on the internet. Large numbers of videos from Iraqi jihadi groups were published on the site.8 The authorities regularly closed down the website, but Garsallaoui always brought it back online.9 He emerged as the informal al-Qa’ida propaganda chief in Europe and started recruiting associates at mosques in Belgium and France.10
On Feb. 22, 2005, Swiss special forces arrested Garsallaoui and his wife during a raid on their home.11 The authorities released them within a month and they simply continued their online operations. In February 2006, Garsallaoui provocatively discussed his activities with CNN reporters.12 On Jun. 21, 2007, a court sentenced him to six months in prison for his role in disseminating videos of attacks, executions and beheadings.13 Garsallaoui was already released in July 2007.14
Following their short stint in prison, Garsallaoui and his wife moved to Belgium.15 In November 2007, Garsallaoui left the country and traveled to Pakistan where he arrived in early 2008.16 Garsallaoui linked up with associates of al-Qa’ida and was given military training.17 He subsequently fought in the ranks of the Shadow Army [LaZ; Lashkar al-Zil] for a short period.18 Garsallaoui ingratiated himself with senior al-Qa’ida members.19 They soon tasked him with helping to oversee al-Qa’ida’s activities in Francophone Europe.20
Garsallaoui founded and subsequently led a small al-Qa’ida-linked special purposes outfit, the Soldiers of the Caliphate [JaK; Jund al-Khilafa].21 This group was initially made up of about a dozen Belgian and French fighters recruited by Garsallaoui and his wife.22 The ranks were reinforced with exiled jihadis from Central Asia.23 Garsallaoui and his men took part in al-Qa’ida operations against the American army in neighboring Afghanistan.24 In July 2008, Garsallaoui claimed to have killed American soldiers in an attack.25 The JaK assumed responsibility for two attacks against US military bases in Afghanistan.26 At the same time, Garsallaoui also gave courses on terrorist tactics.27 He furthermore continued to incite violence against Europe. In September 2008, Garsallaoui called for attacks in Belgium. The following month, he threatened Switzerland.28
By the late 2000s, Garsallaoui’s ties to Pakistani-based Central Asian jihadis had become very close. He helped develop a plot to attack military bases in Germany by members of the Islamic Jihad Union [IJU; Ittihad al-Jihad al-Islami].29 The plans were eventually thwarted by intelligence services. Garsallaoui also assisted Kazakh associates with preparing the 2011 operations in their home country.30 He was furthermore linked to the July 2011 abduction of a Swiss couple in Baluchistan.31 His increased role in international terrorism did not go unnoticed by intelligence agencies. He escaped death when an American aerial drone struck a guesthouse in March 2010.32 On May 10, 2010, a Belgian court sentenced him in absentia to eight years in prison for his role in recruiting European jihadis.33
In March 2012, one of Garsallaoui’s associates killed seven people in a series of attacks against French soldiers and the Jewish community in and around Toulouse. The attacker had been given training and guidance by Garsallaoui in Pakistan in late 2011.34 On Mar. 31, Garsallaoui’s JaK claimed responsibility for the incidents.35 The claim was initially dismissed by the authorities, but later intelligence validated it.36
On May 26, 2012 Garsallaoui was badly injured in an American aerial drone strike on a guesthouse in Miranshah.37 In August 2012, he escaped two further American drone strikes in North Waziristan. Later that year, the American army finally eliminated him in a drone strike in Mirali.38 Al-Qa’ida later released an official eulogy for Garsallaoui.39
References