AT LARGE
- Full name: Mohammed Ahmed Nasser
- Pseudonym: Abu Ahmed
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Sinai
- Affiliation: Islamic State’s Province of Sinai [DaIWS], fmr Partisans of the Holy House [ABaM], fmr Brigades of the Criterion [KaF]
Mohammed Nasser was an Islamist activist and jihadi militant from North Sinai. He was a professor at the Suez Canal University campus in Arish before his turn to militancy.1
In the mid-2000s, Nasser came into contact with senior operatives of the Assembly of Monotheism and Jihad in the Sinai [JTJS; Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad fi-Sina’a] such as Khamis el-Malakhi and Salim al-Shanoub.2 In 2007, the Egyptian authorities arrested Nasser during their clampdown on jihadi activity on the peninsula.3 He was released after four months.4 In the following years, Nasser developed relationships with senior members of the Gaza-based Islamic Resistance Movement [HAMAS; Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya].5
Nasser became an active supporter of Islamist politician Hazem Abu Ismail following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Before long, he served as the spokesperson for Abu Ismail’s Hazemoun movement.6 Nasser also worked on his aborted presidential election campaign.7 The two men later fell out after Nasser advocated violence following Abu Ismail’s disqualification from the elections.8 In April 2012, Nasser and some of his associates traveled to the Gaza Strip where they received training by HAMAS operatives.9
Despite Nasser’s opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in the political process, he vowed to retaliate the coup against Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.10 In the summer of 2013, Nasser and his associates set up the Brigades of the Criterion [KaF; Kataeb el-Furqan].11 He served as the organization’s leader. Nasser furthermore oversaw the group’s efforts to strike the Suez Canal. He organized two rocket attacks on ships sailing through the waterway.12 At one point, Nasser purportedly planned to launch an attack on the canal using a submarine.13
In late 2013, Nasser merged his KaF with the Partisans of the Holy House [ABaM; Ansar Bait al-Maqdis].14 He had long rejected the ABaM’s overtures, but its chief Tawfiq Ziada eventually managed to persuade him.15 Nasser was appointed to the ABaM’s leadership council and became one of its most senior operatives in the Egypt’s western desert regions.16 He also established a training facility in a remote location in the Giza governorate.17
Nasser initially opposed the ABaM’s alignment with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].18 He especially disliked the DaIISh’s demand to split operations in the Sinai and mainland Egypt. Despite his hesitations, Nasser eventually became the head of a small band of DaIISh-loyalist militants operating in the western deserts.19 His group was apparently affiliated to Ashraf Gharabli’s Islamic State in Egypt – South Giza Cells [DaIM-SGC].20 Some of Nasser’s men were involved in the Jul. 11, 2015 bombing of the Italian consulate in Giza and the August 2015 car bomb attack on a police station in Shubra el-Kheima.21 Egyptian security forces tracked the group and the two sides clashed on several occasions. During one of these confrontations in September 2015, security forces mistakenly killed several Mexican tourists.22 Later that month, Nasser narrowly avoided death when police raided his hideout in the village of Awsim, in the Giza governorate, killing nine militants.23 Subsequent investigations revealed that he and his associates were preparing to launch bomb attacks in order to disrupt the upcoming elections.24
Following his escape from the security forces’ onslaught, Nasser fled to the Sinai Peninsula where he linked up with the Islamic State’s Province of Sinai [DaIWS; Dawlat al-Islamiya Wilayat Sina’a]. Nowadays, Nasser serves as a leader in the organization.25 His exact role remains unclear.
References