Abu Hajar al-Hashemi (Jihadi Militant, Egypt)

• Full name: N/a
• Pseudonym: Abu Hajar al-Shami
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Sinai, fmr Iraq and Syria
• Affiliation: Islamic State’s Province of Sinai [DaIWS], fmr Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], fmr Organization of Monotheism and Jihad [JTJ]

Abu Hajar al-Hashemi is a little-known Iraqi jihadi who currently serves as the nominative head of the Islamic State’s Province of Sinai [DaIWS; Dawlat al-Islamiya Wilayat Sina’a].¹ He was an officer in Iraq’s Ba’athist army before joining Ahmed al-Khalayleh’s Organization of Monotheism and Jihad [JTJ; Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad].² Over the next decade, Hashemi rose through the ranks to become a senior operative of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].

Following the death of DaIWS leader Mohammed Ziada in August 2016, DaIISh chief Ibrahim al-Badri tasked him with leading the organization’s branch on the Sinai peninsula.³ He initially had to overcome considerable opposition to his appointment within the DaIWS. In December 2016, Hashemi called upon people living in the Gaza Strip to join his group.⁴ As leader of the DaIWS, he worked to downgrade relations with the Islamic Resistance Movement [HAMAS; Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya] and advocated ruthless retaliation against Bedouin who had mobilized against the DaIWS.⁵ Hashemi is believed to have ordered and organized the November 2017 attack on a mosque in Bir el-Abd in which more than 300 worshippers were massacred.⁶ The victims belonged to a Bedouin tribe that had aligned itself with the Egyptian security forces in the fight against the DaIWS.