Wissam al-Sayyid (Ikhwani Militant, Egypt)

• Full name: Wissam Mustafa al-Sayyid
• Pseudonym: Abu Hamza
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Egypt, fmr Syria
• Affiliation: Monitoring and Deterrence Cell [KRR]

Wissam al-Sayyid is a little-known Egyptian Islamist militant. In the early 2010s, he reportedly traveled to Syria and fought in the ranks of the jihadi forces during the first years of the country’s civil war.¹ Following the 2013 army coup, Sayyid returned to Egypt and linked up with a group of radicalized Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had formed the Monitoring and Deterrence Cell [KRR; Khalia al-Rusud wal-Rada]. He served as one of the outfit’s leaders. Sayyid acquired weapons and explosives, instructed cadres in bomb-making and helped coordinate operations.² He also provided ideological guidance to KRR members.³ Sayyid avoided capture when the Egyptian authorities rolled up the outfit in February 2014. A court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment in May 2016.⁴