British ISIS member, son of convicted EIJ figure, arrested in Spain

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – On Tuesday, Spanish police announced the arrest of Abdel Majid Abdel Bary, a 28-year-old British-Egyptian citizen, who had earlier travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State.

Abdel Bary is the son of a convicted Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) member, imprisoned in the United States in relation to the near-simultaneous bombings of two American embassies in Africa.

Five years ago, the younger Abdel Bary was a rapper whose music was actually played on the radio. He used the stage name of L. Jinny, or Lyricist Jinn, and the family house in which he lived in west London was worth some one million British pounds.

But in 2013, Abdel Bary went to Syria to join the Islamic State. That was early in the history of the terrorist group, which did not yet hold significant territory in Iraq, and the US-led war against it was still in the future.

However, his father, Adel Abdel Bary, had been indicted by the US for his role in disseminating al Qaida’s claim of credit for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the US embassies.

In 1999, the US asked Britain to extradite the elder Abdel Bary to stand trial in New York for that attack. However, it was not until October 2012 that he was actually transferred to US custody, along with two other Islamic extremists resident in the United Kingdom, who also faced terrorism charges in the US.

While he was with the Islamic State, Abdel Bary engaged in unusually shocking behavior. In August 2014, he posted a picture of himself on Twitter, standing in Raqqa’s central square, holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier.

“Chillin’ with my homie, or what’s left of him,” Abdel Bary wrote. Another picture he tweeted included two decapitated bodies and four severed heads on a fence.

At that point, ISIS had seized Mosul and gained control over one-third of Iraq. It threatened Erbil, as well as Baghdad—and that triggered an international military effort to defeat the terrorist organization.

On Aug. 8, the US-led campaign against ISIS began. Navy jets, operating off the aircraft carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush, started bombing ISIS targets in Iraq that were threatening Peshmerga defending the Kurdistan Region.

It was the start of a war that continues to this day.

Abdel Bary’s Spanish Fiancé

Abdel Bary’s brutality brought him to the attention of British and other authorities, ultimately contributing to his arrest. He “had been in the crosshairs of all the security and intelligence services on the European continent,” the Spanish paper, El Mundo, reported following his detention.

Similarly, Col. Myles B. Caggins III, Coalition military spokesman, tweeted his applause of Abdel Bary’s arrest, hailing Spain as a “strong @coalition nation.”

Nonetheless, a young Spanish woman, a convert to Islam, who had come to know Abdel Bary over the internet, had sought to marry him. The 25-year-old, identified in the Spanish press as Maria de los Angeles CM, obtained a passport in the name of a friend in order to travel to meet him in the Middle East.

In 2015, Abdel Bary decided to leave ISIS. Perhaps, the US-led military campaign was making life difficult. Abdel Bary crossed from Syria into Turkey. Maria was to meet him in Istanbul, where they were to wed. However, in October 2015, as she was trying to get to Turkey, Spanish authorities stopped her at the airport, before she could leave the country, and arrested her.

In Syria, women linked to the Islamic State are detained by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at al-Hol camp. Some 85 percent of the women there are Iraqi or Syrian.

Foreigners, like Maria, constitute just 15 percent of the camp’s population. But even if they are relatively small in number, how could such women, living in Europe, find men like Abdel Bary – and life under the Islamic State – an appealing alternative?

An informed source, who closely follows the issue on social media, explained to Kurdistan 24 that there were, indeed, such perceptions of ISIS fighters, but that has changed.

“They are no longer seen as attractive,” this source said. “ISIS used to do a lot of videos showing their members as ‘adventurous and brave,’ but they don’t do that anymore.”

“In the past, the attractiveness factor was limited to ISIS men living in Europe who came from Arab origins,” they continued. “They seemed to attract European girls, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.”

“Muslim women living in Europe may be eager for an adventure to escape domestic abuse or social restrictions imposed by the family,” the source added. “They see in ISIS men a chance to elope without violating their religion.”

“As for non-Muslim women, I think they are just naive, looking for adventure with someone who has a ‘sexy accent’ and is sort of a rebel.”

Abdel Bary’s Arrest

Abdel Bary was detained early Monday morning in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia, along with two other men. As the Spanish National Police announced the arrests, they said they were investigating the identities of his companions and their purposes. Was this an ISIS cell seeking to infiltrate Europe, perhaps?

The three men entered Spain illegally, coming from north Africa, the police said, and then they rented an apartment in the city of Almeria.

They “adopted iron-clad security measures,” exploiting the coronavirus crisis, which has struck Spain hard. They left their apartment infrequently, and separately, “and always with masks to avoid being detected,” the police statement added.

The three men are to appear before a Spanish court on Wednesday and that may reveal more details about them.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany