“I was a candidate to carry out an attack in Belgium”

In an in an interview with the VRT’s Rudi Vranckx last month, the jihadi Tarik Jadaoun said that he was working closely with Belgian and American security services.

However, he claimed to not have very much to tell them, but what he did have to tell them might be of use.

A journalist from the daily ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ has been able to look at the statements made by Tarik Jadaoun. The jihadi has told the Belgian and American security services that he had put himself forward to carry out an attack in Belgium in 2015.

However, the leadership of IS turned down his offer as they had other plans for him.
 

A number of sources report that Tarik Jadaoun was a kind of coordinator with the IS terror group. He is also reported to have coordinated terrorist cells that were active in western countries.

Tarik Jadaoun has been called the successor to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the IS terrorists that was killed in the Paris terror attacks on 13 November 2015.

However, in the interview he gave to the VRT last month, Tarik Jadaoun tried to minimalize his role. He said that he had hardly fought and that he had worked as a nurse in IS controlled areas.
 

Tarik Jadaoun is one of the most infamous Belgian IS terrorists. He joined IS in 2014 and after combat training he worked as a guard on the border between Syria and Turkey. He was then dispatched to the front at Kobani and Homs.

He left Homs for the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2005. The Belgian security services are convinced that Tarik Jadaoun played are more active role behind the scene that he has yet admitted. He used a number of social media account to persuade others to join IS or to carry out attacks.

According to his statement one of his tasks was teaching so-called “cubs of the caliphate” how to handle small to medium-sized arms.
If convicted in Iraq he faces the death sentence.