Emir of terror
Hisham al-Ashmawy is
a sacked commando officer who became the most wanted militant for Egypt’s
security and military agencies.
Following the
downfall of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in June 2013, al-Ashmawy carried
out a number of terrorist attacks in Egypt. He was the mastermind of the October
2017 Western Oasis attack, which left 16 policemen dead and 13 others injured.
His full name is
Hisham Ali al-Ashmawy Mossad Ibrahim.
However, he has other nicknames, such as "Sharif" and "Abu
Mohannad".
In the 2015 audio
titled "A voice message for brother Abu Omar Al-Muhajir, the emir of al-Murabtun
Group”, al-Ashmawy calls for attacks against Egypt's military and police.
He was responsible
for an attack that killed 22 border guards at a security checkpoint on the Farafra
Oasis road in the New Valley province of Egypt's Western Desert in 2014. He was
sentenced to death in absentia for involvement in the attack.
The 38-year-old
militant was involved in an attempt on the life of former interior minister
Mohamed Ibrahim. He was also involved in the assassination of Hisham Barakat,
Egypt's prosecutor-general, in June 2015.
In October 2014, al-Ashmawy
and his closest friend, Emad el-Din Abdel-Hamid, who is another sacked army
officer, had led an attack against security personnel in Karam al-Qwadis area
of North Sinai. The attack left 30 policemen dead. Abdel-Hamid is one of 155
co-defendants in a trial dubbed in the media as the "Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
3". He was sentenced to death in absentia. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is another
terrorist group that called itself "Sinai Province" after swearing allegiance
to Daesh at the end of 2014.
From army
officer to terrorist
Al-Ashmawy joined the
commando force in the Egyptian army in the second half of the 1990s. He was,
however, then moved to an administrative post after he rebuked a man over the
way he recited the Holy Quran at a mosque.
He was frequently
warned by senior officers over his Islamist views. Nonetheless, he kept spreading
extremist ideas by holding meetings with officers and soldiers. He also
secretly distributed pro-jihad books to his colleagues in the army. In 2007, al-Ashmawy
was tried by a military tribunal and sacked from the army in 2011.
He then worked in the
business sector. He also frequently met the members of a jihadist group at a
mosque in Mataryia district of Giza province.
Al-Ashmawy then
formed a terrorist cell at a mosque built by his father in Nasr City. The cell
was linked to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. He and Abdel-Hamid were responsible for combat
and training within the cell.
Al-Ashmawy was a very
clever commando officer. He received advanced training in the US, which gave
him extensive military skills.
He was aware of the
strengths and weaknesses of the Egyptian army, having served in the Western Military
Region, particularly in Farafra Oasis and in Sinai, for a long time.
Al-Murabitun
After fleeing to
Libya, al-Ashmawy formed the al-Qaeda-linked group of "al-Murabtun"
in the northeastern Libyan city of Sirte. The group, which also fights Daesh in
Libya, had several launched attacks inside Egypt.
One of the founders
of al-Murabitun was a former member of Sinai Province. This was why some people
thought the group was affiliated to Daesh. However, al-Ashmawy announced in an
audio his allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and disowned his
group from Daesh.
On April 27, 2013,
Egypt's Ministry of the Interior tracked a visit by al-Ashmawy to Turkey, from
which he infiltrate into Syria where he received training in the making of explosives
and combat operations.
He then returned to
Egypt after the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime and joined the Brotherhood's
sit-ins in Rabaa and al-Nahda squares.
