D’niel Mahi (Jihadi Militant, Belgium)

• Full name: D’niel Mahi
• Pseudonym: Abu Idris, “Padre”
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Belgian, active in Syria, Belgium
• Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], Khalid Zerkani Network [KZN]

D’niel Mahi (°1987) is an influential, but little-known Belgian jihadi of Moroccan descent from the Brussels’ suburb of Molenbeek. He was a close associate of notorious jihadi Abdelhamid Abaaoud with whom he traveled to Syria in January 2014.¹

Mahi joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] and became a member of its elite “Katibat al-Battar”.² He soon linked up with DaIISh’s external operations wing. In that capacity, Mahi helped direct terror plots in Europe.³ He was in contact with the militant who killed four people in an attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels on Mar 24, 2014.⁴ Mahi also guided the Abaaoud-directed cell that had planned to attack the airport of Brussels in early 2015.⁵ Belgian police foiled the plot on Jan. 15 when it raided the attackers’ safe house in Verviers, killing two terrorists.

Mahi was rumored to have been killed in Syria somewhere in 2015.⁶ No information on his current status and whereabouts is available.