Ahmed Rahman (Jihadi Militant, Egypt)

• Full name: Ahmed Abdul Rahman Abdul Hassan
• Pseudonym: Abu Basir
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Egypt, fmr Syria
• Affiliation: Partisans of Shari’a in the Land of Egypt [ASAK]

Ahmed Rahman (°1984) was an Islamist militant from the Egyptian city of Zagazig. He studied theology at the Azhar University and worked as a metal pipes salesman before becoming a follower of Salafi preacher Madin Hassaneen during the mid-2000s.¹ After a few years, his activism got him arrested by the Egyptian authorities.² Rahman was released following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

Following the overthrow of the Mubarak regime, Rahman became devoted to jihad and got in touch with Islamist militants operating in the Sinai, including operatives of the Partisans of the Holy House [ABaM; Ansar Bait al-Maqdis].³ Rahman also spent about a year in Syria where he was given training by local jihadi forces.⁴ Rahman is believed to have returned to Egypt after the army had deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in the summer of 2013.⁵

Rahman, his long-time associate Sayed Morsi and several other followers of Hassaneen founded the Partisans of Shari’a in the Land of Egypt [ASAK; Ansar al-Shari’a fi-Ard al-Kinana] in the wake of the army’s crackdown on Islamism in late 2013.⁶ Rahman oversaw the training of ASAK members and subsequently served as the military chief of the outfit.⁷ In that capacity, he launched a wave of attacks against the security forces. Between January and early March 2014, Rahman took part in almost twenty attacks against the police.⁸ In many cases, he personally shot and killed policemen. One of the dead was an officer who had once slapped his father.⁹ Rahman was primarily active in his native Sharqiya, but also carried out attacks in the governorates of Beni Suef and Giza.¹⁰

Rahman was killed in retaliatory gunfire during an attack on policemen in Zagazig on Mar. 09, 2014.¹¹ His death was acknowledged in an ASAK statement a few weeks later.¹² The outfit was unable to recover from his killing and disintegrated almost immediately afterwards.