Ahmed Rouissi Module (Jihadi Entity, Tunisia)

• Local Name: N/a
• Transliteration: N/a
• Alternatives: Signatories of the Blood Pact [Muaqayeen Mithaq el-Dam], Family of the Men of Death [Mutabayeen Ahlu al-Mawt]
• Status: 2013 – 2014 Merged
• Conflicts: Tunisian Islamist Militancy

The Ahmed Rouissi Module [ARM] was a small jihadi entity that was made up of former members of the Partisans of Shari’a in Tunisia [AST; Ansar Achariaâ] who had fled to Libya after the authorities started cracking down on the movement in the summer of 2013.¹ It had about thirty cadres and was headed by exiled AST leader Ahmed Rouissi.² They established a base in Sabratha, in Libya’s Zawiya district, where Rouissi and his men trained dozens of Tunisian jihadis.³ From its lair, the ARM plotted attacks against security forces and tourists in Tunisia.⁴

The ARM organized the failed suicide bombing on a beach crowded with tourists in Sousse and the thwarted bomb attack on the mausoleum of former president Habib Bourguiba in Monastir on Oct. 30, 2013.⁵ The group was also linked to a cell that was preparing to attack vacationers in Hammamet.⁶ The plot was stopped when police arrested some of the cell’s operatives.

By early 2014, Rouissi and his followers had become integrated into the growing community of Tunisian jihadis that had formed in Sabratha. Later that year, most of these elements pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham]. Rouissi and his men helped form the Islamic State’s Sabratha Network [DaISN]. Some of the militants who were trained by the ARM traveled to Syria to join the DaIISh.⁷ By the end of 2014, Rouissi had also linked up to the Islamic State’s Province of Tripoli [DaIT; Dawlat al-Islamiya Wilayat Tarabulus] and served as one of its commanders.⁸ In March 2015, he was killed in clashes with rival militants in the Sirt district.⁹