- Local Name: Filière d’Artigat et Toulouse
- Transliteration: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Status: 1998 – Active
- Conflicts: Islamist Militancy in France, Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Islamist Insurgency
The Artigat and Toulouse Network [FAT; Filière d’Artigat et Toulouse] is one of the largest and most influential jihadi entities in southern France. It has been active for more than two decades and is connected to Islamists across the country and Belgium. Over the years, the FAT has attracted many dozens of associates, including a remarkable number of converts to Islam.
The FAT emerged in the late 1990s when Fabien Clain and his companions began associating themselves with Olivier Corel and his followers.1 Corel had long run an Islamist commune in the village of Artigat, in the Ariège department, and acted as a spiritual guide among disenfranchised Muslims in nearby Toulouse.2 Clain and his siblings had moved to the city from Normandy in 1998 and were proselytizing among young Muslims.3 The likeminded groups quickly ran into each other. The gang around Clain readily accepted Corel as its spiritual guide and took up religious instruction at his retreat.4 Clain became increasingly effective in spreading his radical message in the heavily immigrant suburbs of Toulouse and attracted new followers.5 By 2000, the FAT already consisted of a few dozen Islamists. Their ties were cemented through intermarriage.6 Many elements of the network also convinced relatives to become part of the network. From early on, FAT associates took an interest in jihad. Their children openly celebrated the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks in America.7
In the beginning of 2003, Clain, his brother and some of their associates moved to Brussels where they linked up with Islamists of North African descent.8 They developed close relations with people who turned into close and loyal allies of the network.9 Farouk Ben Abbes was among these Brussels-based partners. The Clain brothers also went to the Dutch city of Utrecht to visit like-minded individuals.10 In October 2004, the Clains returned to France and went to live at Corel’s commune.
In the mid-2000s, the FAT developed ties to Salafis across the Middle East. Some of the network’s associates went to study Islam in Saudi Arabia and Syria.11 Many other FAT members ended up in Egypt where they attended fundamentalist seminaries in Cairo’s suburbs.12 Clain and other elements of the network were all given religious instruction in the Egyptian capital city.13 They were joined by some their acquaintances from Brussels.14 Some FAT associates were inspired to take up jihad during their stay abroad. In April 2005, French authorities received warning that an element of the network was planning to attack two supermarkets in Toulouse.15 Back in France, other operatives began fitness and martial arts training in preparation for action. These sessions were held in a park in Toulouse but were quickly halted after attendants noticed that they were being watched by police.16
By 2006, several FAT members wanted to join al-Qa’ida-linked jihadi forces in Iraq. In December of that year, Syrian security forces intercepted three associates of the network on their way to Iraq, killing one of them and capturing the others.17 The Syrians expelled the apprehended men to France where they were arrested upon arrival in February 2007. A few days later, French security services rounded up eleven people associated with the FAT.18 These raids were followed by Belgian police operations in which nine Islamists were apprehended during sweeps in Brussels, Nivelles and Verviers.19 Only four of those arrested in France were kept behind bars, the others were all released shortly afterwards.20 On Oct. 23, 2007, French authorities arrested another six persons affiliated with the FAT.21 A further associate was caught at a Parisian airport the next day.22 Police eventually even arrested Clain along with his brother after they had returned to Toulouse on Feb. 20, 2008.23 In June 2009, several FAT operatives were given prison terms between five and six years for their role in the attempts to send fighters to Iraq.24
Earlier in 2009, fellow travelers of the FAT got caught up in the Egyptian crackdown on the terrorists who had killed a French student in the Feb. 22 bomb attack in Cairo. Investigators found that one of them, Ben Abbes, had conspired with al-Qa’ida-associated jihadis from the Gaza Strip to plan attacks against the Jewish community of Paris.25 He was expelled to Belgium in 2010.
The crackdown had little lasting effect on the FAT. Corel and other key figures avoided prison, a few younger elements stepped up and convicted members simply rejoined the network when they were gradually released in the early 2010s.26 The biggest setback was the authorities’ decision to forbid Clain from living in the south of France after he got out of prison.27
In the summer of 2011, one of the younger members of the FAT, Mohammed Merah, linked up with al-Qa’ida associate Moezeddine Garsallaoui in Pakistan.28 He was given guidance and training before returning to France. Merah went on to carry out the March 2012 series of deadly attacks against French soldiers and a Jewish school in and around Toulouse.29 Corel and his associates got some bad press but came under surprisingly little pressure from the authorities in the aftermath of Merah’s attack spree due to the initial mistaken assumption that he had acted independently.
Over the next years, many FAT members became fervent supporters of the jihadi cause in Syria. Network elements followed the stream of European jihadis to the country. In the beginning of 2014, the first FAT associates arrived in Syria where they joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham].30 Clain followed his companions in early 2015.31 He went on to become an important spokesperson for the organization.32 Clain was even granted the honor of officially claiming responsibility for the November 2015 attacks in Paris on behalf of the DaIISh.33 He also helped recruit francophone fighters and apparently directed at least one plot to launch attacks in France.34 Others in the FAT contingent fought on the frontlines for the DaIISh. Many elements of the network brought over their wives and children to the area under the control of the organization.
FAT elements within the DaIISh paid a heavy price as the fortunes of the organization turned in the face of the combined onslaught of its adversaries in the late 2010s. Most of them remained loyal during these difficult times. In February 2019, Clain and his brother were killed in air strikes and clashes in the DaIISh’s last Syrian stronghold, the town of Baghouz.35 In the end, a significant portion of the FAT’s fighters in Syria had died or were captured by Kurdish forces. Others were arrested as they returned to France.
Although the loss of several key members has considerably weakened the FAT, the network survives. The elderly Corel and virtually all of those who have stayed in France are still free. The returned jihadis currently in French custody will eventually be released and key elements of the FAT have produced a large offspring. All of this ensures that the network will likely give rise to new jihadis who intend to wreak havoc on France in the future.
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