The raid required the collaboration of the intelligence services of several countries and shows that, despite the fall of their “caliphate”In 2019, members of the Islamic State (IS) organization are still trying to establish themselves in other countries, far from their Syrian and Iraqi strongholds. In Europe, but also in Africa.
On July 28, at the end of the day, according to information from WorldAn Ivorian anti-terrorist unit carried out, based on information from the US secret services, a raid on a residence in the Koumassi commune in Abidjan. That same night, two Syrian cousins, Maher A. and Salim A., as well as an Iraqi man and his son, Mohamed W. and Ahmad W., were arrested.
False documents and around thirty SIM cards were seized in the A. cousins’ apartment in Abidjan. The two men, one of whom had recently obtained an Albanian visa fraudulently, were planning to travel to Europe soon. Two of their alleged accomplices in Ivory Coast, of Syrian and Iraqi nationality, who helped them reach the country, were arrested a few days later.
At the same time, Hassan A., another cousin of Maher A. and Salim A., was detained by the Malagasy security services in Antananarivo in the company of an Iraqi citizen. This time it was the General Directorate of Foreign Security (DGSE) that supported the operation. Like his relatives in Abidjan, Hassan A. wanted to go to Europe.
All of these individuals had been followed for several months by the American and French intelligence services for their links to the Islamic State organization. They formed a network of facilitators to obtain false documentation or travel documents for members of the jihadist organization. Their objective, according to a security source close to the matter: to relocate “siblings” of ISIS in other areas, particularly in Europe.
Delivered to US authorities.
In Abidjan, the six suspects were interrogated by Ivorian and American intelligence services, who later suspected them of, among other things, involvement in a planned attack on the Paris Olympics. A scenario that leaves, however, French researchers more skeptical. After several weeks of hearings, they were handed over to US authorities, who chartered a special flight to pick them up in the Ivory Coast. According to an official US source, they were then transferred to Iraq and handed over to local security services.
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