- Local Name: Filière de Lunel
- Transliteration: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Status: 2011 – Dormant
- Conflicts: Islamist Militancy in France, Syrian Civil War
The Lunel Network [FdL; Filière de Lunel] was an informal group of radicalized Muslims that was based in the eponymous southern French town. It grew out of a prayer group that had formed in the early 2010s at the Baraka mosque in Lunel under the guidance of Hamza Mozli and one of its religious teachers, Jawad Salih.1 Mozli and Salih attracted a diverse group of radicalized Muslims that included converts but also the son of the mosque’s president.2
By 2013, the FdL held regular meetings at the eatery of one of its associates. Salih instructed his associates in Salafi doctrines and instilled enthusiasm for jihad among the attendees.3 Members of the network became increasingly focused on the conflict in Syria. Mozli developed contacts with a commander of a Syrian jihadi outfit and reached out to a companion of Mourad Farès, the Albanian Johan Juncaj, for logistical support.4 In November 2013, key FdL associate Abdelkarim Belfilalia traveled to Syria and linked up with the Army of Mohammed [JM; Jaish Mohammed] using Juncaj’s network.5
Belfilalia subsequently helped more than a dozen of his Lunellois associates come to Syria.6 In early 2014, one of these men left the JM to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham]. After this fighter had tipped off Mozli of an impending DaIISh operation against the JM, the entire Lunellois contingent switched sides to the DaIISh in April 2014.7 By the end of the year, approximately twenty FdL associates had traveled to Syria.8
In late 2014, FdL recruits in Syria began to suffer casualties. In October, three of them were killed in aerial bombardments by the Syrian regime in Deir az-Zour.9 In December 2014, Belfilalia and a companion were eliminated by security forces while trying to cross into Iraq.10 These reports drew considerable attention to Lunel’s jihadi network. On Jan. 27, 2015, French security forces arrested Mozli, Salih and three other associates of the network in a series of raids in Lunel.11 With the raids, the FdL’s activities in Lunel were largely curtailed.
The Lunellois contingent in the DaIISh continued their activities unimpeded. In 2015, Abdelilah Himich rose through the ranks to become the commander of a DaIISh unit that had more than 300 fighters at its peak.12 On Apr. 25 of that year, another FdL recruit blew himself up in a multipronged attack on the Trebil border crossing between Iraq and Jordan, killing four guardsmen.13 Himich later reportedly became involved in the DaIISh’s external operations wing. He has been linked to preparations for the November 2015 Paris attacks and March 2016 Brussels bombings.14 An associate of the network who had stayed in France was arrested on Jun. 13, 2016 as he was set to attack tourists with a hammer and knife in the French town of Carcassonne.15
A court in Paris sentenced four associates of the FdL to prison on Apr. 13, 2018.16 Despite the gravity of their actions, judges were lenient in their sentencing. Mozli was handed a seven-year prison term and Salih was ordered to spend five years behind bars.
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