Mohamed Moumou

Abu Qasurah al-Maghribi
أبو قسورة المغربي
Abu Qasurah al-Maghribi; أبو قسورة المغربي
Other name(s)	Mohammed Moumou, Abu Sara
Born	July 30, 1965; Fez, Morocco
Died	October 5, 2008 (aged 43); Mosul, Iraq
Allegiance	Al-Qaeda
Years of service	2003–2008
Unit	Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Battles/wars	Insurgency in the Maghreb Casablanca bombings; ; Iraqi insurgency;

Abu Qaswarah al-Maghribi (Arabic: أبو قسورة المغربي) (also known as Mohammed Moumou or Abu Sara^[2]) (July 30, 1965^[3] – October 5, 2008) was a Moroccan national who was reportedly the No. 2 leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the senior leader in Northern Iraq.^[1]^[4] He died in a building in Mosul during a shootout with American troops.^[1]^[5]

Born in Fez, Morocco,^[3] he was one of the founders of the militant Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.^[6] Mohammed immigrated to Sweden in the mid-1980s and gained Swedish citizenship in the mid-1990s.^[1]

In March 2004, Mohammed was arrested in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the request of Moroccan authorities for his alleged role in the 2003 Casablanca bombings.^[7] He was released by the Danish authorities after a month and sent back to Sweden.^[8]

While in Sweden, he was the "uncontested leader of an extremist group centered around the Brandbergen Mosque" in the Stockholm suburb of Haninge, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.^[3]^[9] Säpo, the Swedish Security Service, had been keeping an eye on him since the mid-1990s, suspecting him of leading an Islamist network that supported terrorism abroad.^[1] He was believed to be recruiting Jihadists to fight in Iraq from his base in Sweden.^[1] The Swedes also suspected that he had taken part in terrorist attacks and fought in Afghanistan in the 1990s.^[1] In May 2006, he left for Iraq and never returned.^[1] In December 2006, he was placed on the EU and UN terrorist lists.^[1]^[3]

According to the U.S. military, Abu Qaswarah was a charismatic figure who became the senior commander in northern Iraq in June 2007 and was second in command of Al-Qaeda in Iraq behind Abu Ayyub al-Masri.^[4] Allegedly, he was in charge of smuggling foreign fighters into northern Iraq and killed the fighters who did not want to attack Iraqis or carry out suicide missions.^[4] Prior to his death, a large number of Iraqi Christians were killed, and their murders were widely blamed on al-Qaeda.^[4] He is also accused of orchestrating the failed attack on the Mosul Civic Center, which if successful would have killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians.^[5]

According to the United States Department of the Treasury, Mohammed traveled to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s to participate in the al-Qaeda-run Khalden training camp.^[3] According to TelQuel, Mohammed was recruited in 1996 by Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi to serve as a "sleeper agent" in Stockholm.^[6] Mohammed reportedly served, at some time in the past, as "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's representative in Europe for issues related to chemical and biological weapons".^[3] He reportedly maintained ties to "al-Zarqawi's inner circle" in Iraq.^[3]

He was also the editor of the Al Ansar newsletter connected to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA).^[6]

The U.S. military said that it tracked Abu Qaswarah to a building in Mosul, which served as a "key command and control location" for Al-Qaeda in Iraq.^[5] On 5 October 2008, they entered the building, were fired upon, and during the shootout they killed five people, one of which was Abu Qaswarah.^[5] His death was announced ten days later, when positive identification was made on his body.^[4]

The U.S. military said his death would make it more difficult for Al-Qaeda to network and operate in the region.^[4]