US sanctions three Egyptian al Qaida members in Brazil

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan24) – The US announced on Wednesday that it was designating as global terrorists three Egyptian members of al Qaida, now living in Brazil. 

The Egyptians were engaged in providing financial support to the terrorist organization, and the two companies they ran were designated as well.

Al Qaida and Egyptian Islamic Jihad

In June 2001, three months before the 9-11 attacks, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, merged with al Qaida, headed by Osama bin Ladin. 

Bin Ladin was assassinated by US Navy Seals in May 2011 in Pakistan—in the northwestern city of Abbottabad—where he had been living. A medical doctor, Zawahiri, then assumed bin Ladin’s role as the titular head of al Qaida.

Al Qaida in Brazil

The three Egyptians designated by the US on Wednesday include an individual who used the nom de guerre: Haytham Ahmad Shukri Ahmad al-Maghrabi. “Al Maghrabi” would ordinarily indicate a Moroccan, but as the Treasury Department explained, he is a 35-year-old Egyptian. 

Maghrabi arrived in Brazil in 2015, the Treasury Department said and became “one of the initial members of an al-Qaida network” in that country.

It is unclear why the terrorist organization would have sought to establish a presence in Brazil around that time, but details from the Treasury Department’s statement suggest that is, indeed, what happened.

The Department described Maghrabi’s activities: he “had frequent contact and business dealings, to include the purchase of foreign currency with another al Qaida-affiliated individual based in Brazil.” It did not identify that individual.

Maghrabi worked under the direction of another Egyptian al Qaida member: Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali, who, much earlier, had been indicted for his role in the near-simultaneous bombings of two US embassies in Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) on Aug. 8, 1998.

Ali was never arrested, and a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the US designated him as a Global Terrorist. 

According to widespread reporting, Ali was killed in a 2010 US drone strike in Pakistan. However, according to Wednesday’s statement, after Maghrabi’s 2015 arrival in Brazil, he served “as Ahmed Mohammed Ali’s al-Qaida contact” in that country. 

Possibly, there were two senior figures of that name in al-Qaida, but it seems more likely that the earlier report of Ali’s death was incorrect.

In 2019, the US designated another Egyptian living in Brazil: the 42-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed Ibrahim, who had arrived in that country in 2018. 

The FBI charged that Ibrahim had been “providing material support to al Qaida since approximately 2013” and “has allegedly been involved in plotting attacks against the United States and its interests.”

Ibrahim had ties to two of the men who were sanctioned on Wednesday. 

One is the 48-year-old Mohammed Sherif Mohamed Mohamed Awadd, who arrived in Brazil in mid-2018 “and received financial bank transfers from other al-Qaida associates in Brazil.”

Awadd was also involved in currency counterfeiting, Treasury charged, while he was part of the management of a Sao Paulo furniture company, Home Elegance Comercio de Moveis EIRELI, which was established in October 2018 and was also designated by the US on Wednesday.

Awadd provided support to Ibrahim, who, as the Treasury Department noted, “was designated on September 10, 2019 for having acted for or on behalf of al Qaida.”

Ahmad al-Khatib, 52 years old, is the third Egyptian sanctioned on Wednesday. Like Awadd, he ran a furniture store in Sao Paulo, and he also supported Ibrahim.

Khatib’s business, Enterprise Comercio de Moveis e Intermediacao de Negocios EIRELI, which was established in Oct. 2019, a year after Awadd’s, was also sanctioned.