A leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) terrorist group who had been linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington was killed by the security forces of Mali according to a statement by armed forces released on June 28: “Intelligence data made it possible to surprise the terrorist while he had gathered and pressured local populations for a forced awareness campaign,” the armed forces statement said.
According to security sources, the terrorist, known as the “Abu Dahdah” is said to have close links with the intelligence services of a neighboring country for the destabilization of the Sahel. Although not indicated in the report, the “neighboring state” often refers to Algeria.
The terrorist killed was identified as Imad Eddin Barakat, alias Abou Dahdah, a Spanish national born in Syria. He had been arrested by Spain in 2001, two months after the 9/11 attacks and convicted of leading an Al Qaeda cell in Spain. Although an obvious professional deadly terrorist, he had been sentenced to just 27 years in prison, serving only 12. Even while in prison he reportedly continued to facilitate the financing of terror cells, He was released in 2014. After his release he went to the Sahel to lead the Islamic State of Greater Sahel as an ideologue and expert in suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices. He had been involved in recent attacks in Niger. The terrorism in Sahel took off in 2014-15, especially after NATO’s overthrow of Qaddafi in Libya and NATO’s regime change war in Syria. The Spanish colonies of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast were key recruiting grounds for mercenary terrorist deployed into Syria.
