Oussama Atar, the Belgo-Moroccan aged 33, believed to be a presumed mastermind of the Paris and Brussels attacks, was killed by an airstrike by the international anti-jihadist coalition in Syria. The information has been reported by the French news website, Mediapart, citing France’s General Directorate of External Security, the French intelligence services. The Belgian Federal Prosecution Service did not wish to comment upon the information.
Mediapart is claiming, “On November 17th, 2017, a strike by the international coalition in Syria killed the Belgian, Oussama Atar.” Its statement follows the opening of an investigation, which has revealed that the seven people, believed to be the masterminds of the Paris and Brussels attacks, have all been killed in Syria.
Oussama Atar had been arrested and imprisoned in 2005 in the Abu Ghraib and Bucca prisons in Iraq. He had been released in 2012 and repatriated to Brussels.
In a message sent to his family, Atar denied all involvement in the Paris and Brussels attacks. However, it appears that he visited one of his nephews in prison around twenty times. The nephew was one of the El Bakraoui brothers, himself one of the suicide bombers of the Brussels attacks on March 22nd, 2016.
The Brussels Times
