APPREHENDED
- Full name: Lakhdar Sebouai
- Pseudonym: Abu Ali al-Faransi
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Syria, fmr France
- Affiliation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh]
Lakhdar Sebouai (°1991) is an Islamist of Algerian descent who grew up in the Robertsau suburb of Strasbourg. The shadowy figure is a key figure in the jihadi milieu of the Alsace and had a close relationship to Oumar Diaw, a pillar of the Islamist extremists in the region.1 He also frequented Islamists in the Nièvre department of Burgundy.2 In December 2013, Sebouai traveled to Syria and linked up with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].3 It is unclear whether he immediately joined the DaIISh or first spent some time with one of its predecessor groups. In any case, Sebouai was fighting on the frontlines for the DaIISh near Raqqa in 2014.4 In March of that year, he got injured.
Sebouai became a logistical operative for the DaIISh recruited wives for the organization’s fighters.5 In the summer of 2014, he married a convert to Islam who had come over to Syria along with her two children.6 Sebouai furthermore cooperated closely with Diaw to instigate terrorist activity in France.7 He maintained contacts with supporters of the DaIISh in Strasbourg. Together with Diaw, Sebouai guided the Bousseria and Makran Cell [CBM; Cellule de Bousseria et Makran] step by step in a plot to launch attacks in Paris.8 He was also in close contact with Hicham el-Hanafi, a Moroccan jihadi from Portugal who was planned to carry out a concurrent operation in the French capital city.9
Sebouai’s fortunes turned as the DaIISh weakened under the onslaught of its opponents in the late 2010s. At one point, he was even thought to have been killed.10 In the summer of 2021, Sebouai was reported to have been captured by Kurdish fighters in Syria.11 Around the same time, Turkey extradited one of his wives to France after having caught her while crossing into the country from Syria.12
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