Chaouki Fakraoui (Jihadi Militant, Tunisia)

• Full name: Chaouki Fakraoui
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Tunisia
• Affiliation: Soldiers of the Caliphate in Tunisia [JaKI], fmr Brigade of Okba Bin Nafi (KUIN)

Chaouki Fakraoui (°1996) was a Tunisian jihadi operative who had been involved in militant activity since joining the Brigade of Okba Bin Nafi [KUIN; Katibat Uqba Ibn Nafa’a] in 2014.¹ Fakraoui took part in some of the group’s most prolific attacks, including the May 2014 assault on the residence of the interior minister in Kasserine and the July 2014 killing of fifteen Tunisian soldiers in an attack on Mount Chaâmbi.² He also participated in the Apr. 07, 2015 ambush of an army patrol near Sbeitla in which five troops were killed.³

Later that year, Fakraoui switched allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] and became one of the original members of the Soldiers of the Caliphate in Tunisia [JaKI; Jund al-Khilafa fi-Ifriqiya].⁴ He rose through the ranks and eventually served as one of its commanders. Fakraoui was tasked with monitoring the security forces in the mountains where the JaKI operated.⁵ He also planted landmines and roadside bombs.⁶ Fakraoui was furthermore linked to the abduction and beheading of two shepherds in 2015 and 2017.⁷

Fakraoui was eliminated in a police operation on the flanks of Mount Salloum on Mar. 31, 2018.⁸ At the time of his death, the authorities had more than twenty outstanding warrants for him.⁹