ELIMINATED
- Full name: Abdulrahman Mohammed Hussein Muhareb
- Pseudonym: Abu Munir
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Sinai
- Affiliation: Partisans of the Holy House [ABaM], fmr Assembly of Monotheism and Jihad in the Sinai [JTJS]
Mohammed Muhareb (°1952) was an Islamist from the Sawarka Bedouin tribe in the Sinai. Although he was uneducated and worked as a cleaner, Muhareb long served as a preacher in a local mosque.1 Over time, he became an influential local leader of the fundamentalist Excommunication and Exile Movement [TwH; Takfir wal-Hijra]. Muhareb had followers across the peninsula and in the neighboring Gaza Strip.2
Muhareb had links to elements of the Assembly of Monotheism and Jihad in the Sinai [JTJS; Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad fi Sina’a] during the early and mid-2000s. His sons were known operatives of the organization and had been involved in the 2004 bomb attacks against tourists in Taba.3 Muhareb himself was arrested after the 2006 Dahab bombings. He subsequently spent several years in prison.4
The authorities released Muhareb in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.5 Once free, he joined other Sinai-based Islamists who were trying to reconstitute the JTJS.6 Muhareb played a key role in the militants’ operations in the first years of the insurgency and was linked to several significant incidents, including the July 2011 attack on a police station in Arish and the August 2012 killing of sixteen soldiers during an attack on a border checkpoint near Rafah.7 Emissaries of president Mohammed Morsi made several visits to Muhareb in attempts to lobby him into halting jihadi activity in the Sinai.8
After the army deposed the Islamist president in the summer of 2013, Muhareb apparently stepped up his involvement in the insurgency. He served as one of the jihadis’ spiritual leaders and issued a fatwa justifying attacks against the army and police.9 Muhareb reportedly developed close ties to members of the Partisans of the Holy House [ABaM; Ansar Bait al-Maqdis].10 He oversaw numerous roadside bombings and helped Adel Habara plan the August 2013 attack in which 25 police officers were executed near Rafah.11 In November 2013, Egyptian security forces eliminated Muhareb and a relative after intercepting their car near Goura.12
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