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Osama Krayem

Osama Krayem (born 1992) was an Islamic State member from Sweden who was one of the perpetrators of the 2016 Brussels bombings.

Biography[]

Osama Krayem was born in 1992 in Rosengard, Malmo Municipality, Sweden to a Sunni Muslim Palestinian family that immigrated from Syria. He was radicalized after watching Anwar al-Awlaki's videos, and he attempted to recruit other young Arabs into joining the Islamic State in the Syrian Civil War. He was given the alias of Naim al-Hamed. While he was in Syria he posed with an AK-47. Krayem was among the first militants from Sweden to join ISIS in 2014, and on 20 September 2015 he returned to Europe through Greece with a fake passport that stated that his name was "Naim al-Hamed" and was a 27-year-old from Hama Governorate, Syria. In October 2015, he met Salah Abdeslam in Ulm, Germany to discuss the planning of terrorist attacks in Europe, and he was the man who purchased the rucksacks used in the 2016 Brussels bombings. He accompanied Khalid al-Bakraoui to the Petillon metro station, where al-Bakraoui would carry out a suicide bombing, and he was identified as the man who accompanied al-Bakraoui by 9 April 2016. He was later arrested, and he confessed that he regretted his actions as a terrorist and chose not to blow himself up at the train station. On 6 July 2018, Krayem was arrested for terrorism and the murder of the Jordanian pilot Muaz al-Kasasbeh. In June 2018, he was extradited to France; he was also linked to the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2016 Brussels bombings. He is now in custody and awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. His younger brother Anas,is now in prison.

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