Khalid El Bakraoui

Khālid El Bakraoui (Arabic: خالد البكراوي‎; 12 January 1989 – 22 March 2016), also known as Abū Walīd al-Baljīkī, was a Belgian national of Moroccan descent, confirmed to be the suicide bomber at the metro station in the 2016 Brussels bombings.

Khalid El Bakraoui
Born(1989-01-12)12 January 1989
Brussels, Belgium
StatusDeceased
Died22 March 2016(2016-03-22) (aged 27)
Brussels, Belgium
Known forInvolvement in the 2016 Brussels bombings

Early life

El Bakraoui was raised in Laken, a residential district in northwestern Brussels.[1] His father, a retired butcher and devout Muslim, emigrated from Morocco; his mother was described as "conservative and reclusive".[1] His brother Ibrahim has been identified as one of two suicide bombers at Brussels Airport.[2]

Criminal history

Arrests

On 27 October 2009, he was one of three men involved in a bank robbery, in which they kidnapped an employee and forced her to drive them to her workplace in Brussels and deactivate the alarm. They made off with €41,000. About two weeks later, Khalid stole a vehicle and was later found with it and a number of other stolen vehicles in a warehouse. Though he was detained, he was not charged at the time.[1]

In 2011, Khalid was arrested for the possession of Kalashnikov rifles. In September 2011, he was convicted of the carjackings, possession of weapons, and the 2009 bank robbery, being sentenced to five years in prison. He was released from prison after serving most of his sentence.[1]

In May 2015, following his release, Khalid was arrested upon meeting with a former criminal accomplice, which violated a term of his parole, but a judge released him because he continued to meet the rest of his parole conditions. From October 2015, he failed his parole appointments and abandoned his address, resulting in a cancelled parole as of February 2016.[3]

International warrant of arrest and terrorist activities

In August 2015, Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest.[4] Two further arrest warrants were issued for Khalid on 11 December 2015, one international and one European.[5] Both were issued by a Paris judge investigating the November 2015 Paris attacks, because Khalid, using false documents,[6] rented the Charleroi house where fingerprints of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of those attacks, as well as an involved suicide bomber, Bilal Hadfi, were found.[7]

According to a report by the De Morgen daily, Belgian authorities, acting after they learned, in the summer of 2015, of his call on friends to help him obtain as many Kalashnikov chargers as possible, searched El Bakraoui's home in October 2015, found evidence of "calls to jihad" and "images of known terrorists", but found no weapons and therefore did not make an arrest. [8]

On 15 March 2016, Khalid and his brother Ibrahim evaded capture during a police raid in Brussels.[9] On 16 March 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States sent information about them to authorities in the Netherlands.[10] The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division also informed the Dutch embassy liaison in Washington, that they were wanted for "terrorism, extremism and recruitment".[11][12]

Death

Khalid has been identified as the suicide bomber at Maalbeek metro station in Brussels on 22 March 2016.[2]

See also

References
  1. "Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui: From Bank Robbers to Brussels Bombers". The New York Times. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  2. "Brothers ID'd as suicide bombers in Belgium, 1 suspect 'on the run'". CNN. 24 March 2016.
  3. "Bélgica buscaba desde diciembre a uno de los kamikazes de Bruselas por sus vínculos con los ataques a París". Público (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  4. Alissa J. Rubin; Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura; Aurelien Breeden (23 March 2016). "Brothers Among 3 Brussels Suicide Attackers; Another Assailant Is Sought". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  5. "Khalid El Bakraoui avait loué sous un faux nom une planque belge pour les commandos du 13 novembre à Paris". Le Soir. 24 March 2016.
  6. LAURENCE NORMAN. "Belgium Launches Terror Probe as ISIS Claims Machete Attack". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 August 2016. Khalid el Barkaoui, a suicide bomber in the Brussels attacks who had been wanted in connection with the Paris attacks, was suspected of using falsified documents to rent a house in Charleroi that may have served as a base for the Paris terrorists, authorities said in March.
  7. "Belgian police find safe houses used by Paris suspects". Yahoo News. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  8. "Brussels bomber's home was searched days before Paris attacks: report". Politico.eu. 3 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  9. Alastair Jamieson; Annick M'Kele (23 March 2016). "Brussels Attacks: El Bakraoui Brothers Were Jailed for Carjackings, Shootout". NBC News. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  10. "FBI warned Dutch about El Bakraoui brothers week before Brussels attacks". Reuters. 29 March 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  11. Jennifer Rankin. "FBI tipped off Dutch police about Bakraoui brothers". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  12. Anthony Deutsch (30 March 2016). "Dutch minister misinforms parliament again about Belgium attack intelligence". Euronews. Reuters. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
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