Khalid al-Bakraoui (12 January 1989 – 22 March 2016) was an Islamic State member and one of the perpetrators of the 2016 Brussels bombings.
Biography[]
Khalid al-Bakraoui was born on January 12, 1989 in Brussels, Belgium to a Sunni Muslim family of Moroccans. The younger brother of Brahim al-Bakraoui, he was arrested for carjackings in Brussels and sentenced to five years in prison, but he was released early. In 2011, he acquired AK-47s against the law, and he was arrested for violating his parole; he was again released early. He later joined the Islamic State, and they were members of the Molenbeek cell of the Islamic State, the same cell that carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks. On 22 March 2016, Khalid, Brahim, and Najim Laachraoui arrived at the Brussels Airport with bombs, and al-Bakraoui proceeded to head to the subway and detonate his explosives at the Maalbeek metro station on a three-carriage train.