Nourredine Chouchane (Jihadi Militant, Tunisia)

• Full name: Nourredine Ben Tahar Ben Hadj Belgacem Chouchane
• Pseudonym: Sabir
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Libya
• Affiliation: Islamic State’s Sabrahta Network [DaISN]

Noureddine Chouchane (°1980) was a senior jihadi from Tunisia’s Sidi Bouzid governorate. He illegally migrated to Italy in 2002 after having graduated college the year before.¹ Chouchane sought to join al-Qa’ida’s forces operating in Iraq in 2003, but was arrested while traveling through Syria.² The Syrians jailed him for little over a month. Following his release, he returned to Italy. Chouchane worked in construction and got a residence permit in 2007.³ In the early 2010s, he was in contact with elements of the Shari’a for Belgium Movement [Sh4B].⁴

In 2011, Chouchane returned to his home country and joined the Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST; Ansar Achariaâ].⁵ He traveled to Libya later that year where he joined exiled Tunisian jihadis.⁶ Chouchane set up a training camp in the town of Sabratha.⁷ He pledged loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] and acted as a key facilitator of the organization’s activities in Libya.⁸ Chouchane also recruited fighters and assisted Tunisian DaIISh operatives transiting the country.⁹

Chouchane eventually became a leading member of the Islamic State’s Sabratha Network [DaISN]. He helped organize the group’s campaign of attacks against Tunisia. As such, Chouchane was deeply involved in preparing the March 2015 attack on a Tunis museum and the June 2015 massacre of tourists on a beach near Sousse.¹⁰ Dozens of foreigners were killed in these incidents. He was also linked to several smaller-scale attacks in the governorates of Sidi Bouzid and Sousse.¹¹

Chouchane was most likely killed in an American air strike on the DaISN’s main compound in Sabratha on Feb. 19, 2016.¹² Other reports state that he was killed by local militia forces as jihadis tried to flee the area following the strike on Feb. 26.¹³ At the time of his death, Chouchane was believed to be plotting attacks against Western interests in Tunisia.¹⁴