APPREHENDED
- Full name: Yassine Sakkam
- Pseudonym: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Iraq, fmr Syria, fmr France
- Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh], Lunel Network [FdL]
Yassine Sakkam (°ca 1989) is a jihadi from the French department of the Hérault. He was born in Montpellier but grew up in a village close to Lunel. As a young man, Sakkam was involved in the narcotics trade and known to use recreational drugs and drink alcohol.1 In the early 2010s, he and his brother turned to religion and became part of the so-called Lunel Network [FdL; Filière de Lunel] that grew around Hamza Mozli and Jawad Salih.2
In December 2014, Sakkam followed his brother and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] in Syria.3 He was assigned to the brigade led by FdL associate Abdelilah Himich and enthusiastically embraced life as a jihadi. Sakkam allegedly volunteered to fight on the frontlines for the DaIISh and had his wife and child come over to live with him in Syria.4 He was also active on social media and at one point threatened to cut the throats of French researchers studying Lunel’s jihadi community.5 His brother was one of the suicide bombers who attacked an Iraqi-Jordanian border crossing in April 2015.6
Sakkam was captured by Kurdish forces as the DaIISh faced the combined onslaught of its adversaries somewhere in 2017. While in custody, Sakkam gave an interview to French journalists in which he minimized his activities and allegiance to the DaIISh.7 The Kurds handed him over to the Iraqi authorities in January 2019.8 A court sentenced him to death in May of that year.9
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