A surprising number of Swedes
have traveled to
pate in jihad. The most important
of those was Abu Qaswara al-Maghribi
(Mohamed Moumou), a Morroccan-
born Swedish citizen that was the ISI's
operational chief in
death in October 2008. As a result
of his control over the primary jihadi
entry points to
was responsible for the ISI's external
networks, which focused on the
importation of fighters from abroad.
Before joining al-Qaeda's operation in
during the 1990s (where he wrote
articles on
cations) and trained at the Khalden
camp in
**
Although the details are unclear, Abu
Qaswara may have been running a
wide-ranging network outside of
convicted another Swedish citizen
of Moroccan origin, Ahmed Essafri,
for leading a network funneling
fighters to
frequently between
sively about Abu Qaswara during
his detention. Moreover, during
Abu Qaswara's tenure the ISI
was linked to attacks in
most notably the ill-fated effort
by two men in
a British-born Muslim of Iraqi
descent, to detonate crude
bombs at a
and at the
**
Abu Qaswara was not the only
Swede to make the journey to
a suicide bombing in
biography resembles Makram Bin
Salem Al-Majri, a Swedish fighter
that first arrived in
The men were both described as
having been born in 1974 and
as having traveled through
to
personnel file requests that his
wife not be contacted by ISI
authorities, but she was apparently
called by ISI personnel after his
death.) Although al-Majri may
have spent three consecutive
years in
raises the question of whether he
traveled in and out of
that period-a process that would
have been similar to that under-
taken by al-Abdaly if he indeed
traveled to
***