US military kills 2 Swedish Islamic State fighters in Iraq

The US military said it killed two Swedish nationals who were part of the Islamic State’s “cadre of foreign fighters” in separate airstrikes. One of the two Swedes killed in the strikes served as the deputy emir of the Islamic State’s “Anwar Awlaki brigade.” Swedish jihadists have played key roles in al Qaeda in the past.

The deaths of Swedish nationals Khalid Ostman Timayare and Harris Cary Saneen was announced yesterday during a briefing by Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the US led military Coalition that operates in Iraq and Syria. The exact date of the airstrikes was not disclosed. Warren said the two Swedish Islamic State fighters were killed “recently.”

Timayare, who was killed in an airstrike near Ar Ragnina, served as “ISIL’s [Islamic State] deputy emir of the Anwar Awlaki brigade,” according to Warren. The Anwar Awlaki brigade is composed of English-speaking Islamic State fighters and operates throughout Iraq and Syria.

Timayare had “many links to Western fighters,” Warren claimed, and “was also a known associate of Omar al Shishani,” a top Islamic State military commander who the US said it killed in an airstrike on March 4. Shishani, an ethnic Chechen from Georgia, led an elite team of foreign and local fighters who have spearheaded Islamic State assaults in Iraq and Syria.

Saneen, who is also known as Abu Zubari al Basni (the Bosnian, as he is an ethnic Bosnian), was killed in an airstrike near Bajar. He was “a trusted member of the cadre of foreign fighters,” Warren stated.

“Both of these strikes deprive ISIL of motivated foreign fighters who have displayed leadership aptitude,” Warren stated.

The Islamic State has no shortage of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria. More than 27,000 foreign fighters are estimated to have entered Iraq and Syria since Syria’s civil war began in 2011, according to The Telegraph. Of those, more than 6,000 are believed to have come from Europe. While all of these foreign fighters haven’t joined the Islamic State, some join other radical Islamist groups such as the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, or Ahrar al Sham, its ally.

The threat of foreign jihadists returning to their home countries and conducting terror attacks is significant, especially in Europe. Over the past six months, Islamic State fighters launched two major attacks, one in Paris, France, and another in Brussels, Belgium. More than 160 people were killed as Islamic State fighters used suicide bombers and assault teams to target civilians public places.

Sweden, like all European countries, has grappled with a jihadist problem. In 2010, before the beginning of Syrian civil war and the rise of the Islamic State, Taimour Abdulwahab, an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen, detonated a car bomb and then a suicide bomb in Stockholm. Two people were wounded in the attack. In an email sent to Swedish authorities just minutes before the failed attack, Abdulwahab admitted to traveling to the Middle East to train “for Jihad.” An Iraqi counterterrorism official said that Abdulwahab trained in Mosul. [See LWJ report, Swedish suicide bomber trained in Mosul: Iraqi official.]

Swedish jihadists are known to have played key roles within al Qaeda’s organization. In 2008, the US military killed Abu Qaswarah al Skani (the Swede), a naturalized Swedish citizen who was wanted by United States and whose real name is Mohamed Moumou, during a raid on an al Qaeda command center in Mosul. He trained in the al Qaeda-run Khalden terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and was designated as a terrorist by the US. He was closely connected to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the slain leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and commanded al Qaeda forces in northern Iraq before being appointed second in command. [See LWJ report, Al Qaeda in Iraq’s second in command was a Swedish citizen.]

Yasin Ali Baynah, a dual Somali and Swedish citizen, served as a senior leader in Hizbul Islam, a jihadist alliance which was formed in Somalia in 2008. The United Nations, which listed Baynah as a threat to Somalia in 2010 along with Shabaab and other terrorist groups, said he “incited attacks” against the government and “mobilized support and raised funds” for Hizbul Islam.

Since the beginning of Syria’s civil war, more than 300 Swedish Muslims are thought to have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight. An estimated 120 of these jihadists are said to have originated from the city of Gothenburg, according to The Local.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.