Boukhouch and Lamrini Group (Jihadi Entity, France)

• Local Name: None
• Transliteration: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Status: 2014 – 2014 (Defeated)
• Conflicts: Islamist Militancy in France, Syrian Civil War

The Boukhouch and Lamrini Group [BLG] was a small informal jihad entity based in the French city of Strasbourg. It was comprised of about a dozen elements under the leadership of Farid Boukhouch.¹ Through Youssef Lamrini, the group was linked to Lakhdar Sebouai, an attack coordinator for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].² He also helped two women with traveling to Syria.³

The BLG apparently formed somewhere in 2014 when Boukhouch began recruiting Islamist youths at local mosques in the Alsatian capital city.⁴ He provided his companions with fitness training and martial arts practice in preparation for joining the DaIISh in Syria.⁵ They brazenly practiced in public at Strasbourg city parks. On Oct. 13, 2014, police intervened when about half a dozen BLG members were training in hand-to-hand combat and knife use at a park in Cronenbourg.⁶ The extremists resisted the police and threatened officers. Boukhouch was apprehended. Authorities initiated terrorism investigations into the entity on the following day.⁷

Following Boukhouch’s arrest, Lamrini briefly took over the BLG until he too was stopped by French authorities.⁸ Investigators later found that associates under the leadership of Thierry Valorus had been organizing similar training sessions in Paris.⁹ The main operatives of the BLG were brought to trial and were sentenced to prison on Apr. 21, 2017.¹⁰ Some of the condemned were given longer prison terms on appeal in May 2018.¹¹