ELIMINATED
- Full name: Ahmed Ibn Mohammed Ibn Mohammed Rouissi Ibn Taus al-Wartani
- Pseudonym: Abu Zakariya al-Tunisi, “Docteur”, “Shawkani”
- Alternatives: Ahmed al-Jabali, Ahmed Bin Mohammed al-Ruwaisi
- Location: Libya, Tunisia
- Affiliation: Islamic State’s Sabratha Network [DaISN], Islamic State’s Province of Tripoli [DaIT], formerly Ahmed Rouissi Module [ARM], formerly Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST]
Ahmed Rouissi (°1967) was a prolific jihadi from Tunisia. As a young man, he lived in Syria for some time during the 1980s.1 A former fortune teller with a reputation for womanizing, Rouissi became involved in drugs trafficking in the 2000s.2 He was eventually arrested and given a fourteen-year prison sentence.3 During his incarceration, Rouissi got acquainted with a former member of the Soldiers of Asad Ibn al-Furat [JAIF; Jund al-Asad Ibn al-Furat] who introduced him to radical Salafism.4 He escaped prison during the 2011 Tunisian Revolution.5
Rouissi joined the Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST; Ansar Achariaâ] soon after its formation and quickly became one of the leaders of its covert armed wing.6 He acted as the movement’s key facilitator for jihadis traveling from Tunisia to Libya and Syria. Rouissi was furthermore one of the key instigators of the AST’s covert domestic militant activity. He supposedly helped instigate the September 2012 mob attack on the American embassy in Tunis.7 Rouissi was briefly arrested on Feb. 21, 2013.8
Following his release from jail, Rouissi traveled to Libya where he set up a training camp in Libya’s Zawiya district.9 He helped mastermind the 2013 assassinations of left-wing politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohammed Brahmi.10 Rouissi was also connected to the AST militants who killed six national guardsmen as they raided their hideout in Sidi Ali Ben Aoun, in the Sidi Bouzid governorate on Oct. 23, 2013.11 In November 2013, he was wrongly reported to have by arrested by security forces.12
In the meanwhile, Rouissi had set up his own jihadi outfit, the so-called Ahmed Rouissi Module [ARM]. He and his men plotted attacks against Tunisia’s security forces and tourists visiting the country.13 The outfit was linked to the failed the suicide bombing on a beach in Sousse and the thwarted bomb attack on Bourguiba’s mausoleum in Monastir on Oct. 30, 2013.14 Rouissi was also believed to have been involved in the abductions of two Tunisian diplomats in Libya in March and April 2014.15 Around the same time, he published a list of Tunisians he wanted to have killed.16 In August 2014, Rouissi was captured by a rival armed group in Libya. Although these militiamen initially indicated they would transfer the jihadi to Tunisia, Rouissi was later released.17
In late 2014, Rouissi pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham]. He and his men merged into the Islamic State’s Sabratha Network [DaISN]. Rouissi continued plotting attacks in Tunisia. In October 2014, Tunisian police rolled up several jihadi cells under his command.18 These modules had been planning to assassinate future president Beiji Essebsi and Rouissi’s sister who was cooperating with the authorities. The terrorists were also plotting to abduct foreigners for ransom. Around the same time, Rouissi also joined the Islamic State’s Province of Tripoli [DaIT; Dawlat al-Islamiya Wilayat Tarabulus] and started serving as one of its commanders.19 He was killed in clashes with rival militants near Harawa on Mar. 14, 2015.20
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