ELIMINATED
- Full name: Imad ad-Din Sayyid Ahmed Abdul Hamid
- Pseudonym: Abu Hatem, Sheikh Hatem, Mustafa, Ramzi
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Egypt, fmr Libya, fmr Saudi Arabia
- Affiliation: fmr Assembly of the Partisans of Islam [JAaI], fmr Assembly of the Sentinels [JaM], fmr Holy Warriors’ Consultative Council of Derna [MSCD]
Imadaddin Hamid was an Egyptian jihadi from the Smouha suburb of Alexandria. As a young man, he planned to make a career in the army. Hamid graduated from military college in 1998 and went on to serve as a captain in the Egyptian special forces.1 He became increasingly devout and got into an altercation with a senior officer over leaving a meeting to pray in 2006.2 Hamid was subsequently expelled from the army for his religious fanaticism.3 He briefly worked in local administration, before setting up a food company with another former army officer in 2008.4 The firm quickly went out of business and Hamid had to work odd jobs in Saudi Arabia.5 Upon his return in 2010, he became a close companion of another officer who was expelled from the army; Hisham Ashmawi.6
Following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Hamid became even more focused on religion. He studied Islam at seminaries organized by Alexandrian Salafi preacher Mohammed Bassiouni and Ahmed Ashoush, the leader of al-Qa’ida-linked Partisans of Shari’a in Egypt [ASE; Ansar al-Shari’a].7 Hamid eventually joined the Partisans of the Holy House [ABaM; Ansar Bait al-Maqdis] to serve as deputy of Ashmawi.8 He assisted him with developing the ABaM’s operations in Egypt’s western desert regions and setting up new cells elsewhere in the country.9 Hamid also helped train the group’s cadres.10 He was furthermore involved in planning and executing some of the ABaM’s most significant operations, including the suicide car bomb attack on the convoy of interior minister Mohammed Ibrahim in Cairo on Sep. 05, 2013.11 Hamid also took part in the Jul. 19, 2014 killing of 22 soldiers in an attack on a security checkpoint in Farafra. He reportedly got injured in the incident.12
In late 2014, Hamid joined Ashmawi in defecting from the ABaM following its pledge of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].13 They traveled to Libya and linked up with the Holy Warriors’ Consultative Council of Derna [MSCD; Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen Derna].14 Hamid was tasked with training MSCD recruits.15 At the same time, he also served as the second-in-command of Ashmawi’s newly established Assembly of the Sentinels [JaM; Jama’at al-Mourabitoun].16
Hamid eventually set up his own group; the Assembly of the Partisans of Islam [JAaI; Jama’at Ansar al-Islam].17 He recruited Egyptian jihadis based in Derna and began collecting weapons. Hamid and his fighters crossed into Egypt in the summer of 2016.18 They settled in the country’s western desert region, where Hamid prepared his men and made plans to attack government installations and the Coptic community.19 On Oct. 20, 2017, he led his fighters into battle when security forces came across their camp near Bahariya.20 Sixteen policemen were killed in the fighting. Hamid also lost fifteen of his men and retreated from the area. The authorities caught up with him on Oct. 31 when Hamid and several of his associates were killed in an air strike.21
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