Mohamed Mahmoud
| Mohamed Mahmoud | |
|---|---|
| Born |
18 June 1985 Vienna, Austria |
| Residence | Syria |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Other names | Abu Usama al-Gharib |
| Organization | Islamic State |
| Spouse(s) |
Mona Salem Ahmed (unknown) Ahlam al-Nasr (married 2014-present) |
| Parent(s) |
|
Mona Salem Ahmed (unknown)
Mohamed Mahmoud, known as Abu Usama al-Gharib, is an Austrian Islamic militant and a senior leader in the Islamic State.
He was born 18 June 1985 in Vienna, Austria. His father Sami Mahmoud was a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Fearing arrest, he fled to Austria and received asylum five years later.
In October 2002, aged 17, he traveled to Iraq via Italy. He was trained in a camp by Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was gone for eight months, but he was arrested two months before the war in Iraq started.
In 2005 he founded the 'Organization of the Islamic Youth' in Austria.
In Austria, by late 2006, he became a leader in the Global Islamic Media Front, working alongside his former wife to translate videos and texts from Arabic into German. He had connections to Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. He called on Muslims to boycott the Austrian legislative election, 2006, handing out leaflets.
In 2007, authorities became suspicious when he started to buy ingredients for a possible suicide belt and the Media Front published a video threatening to carry out attacks in Germany and Austria if they did not withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.
On September 12, 2007, he and his wife were arrested in Vienna. He denied that he had anything to do with the production of the video or that he had any plans for a suicide attack.
In April 2008, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb called for his release from jail in Austria, in exchange for freeing two Austrian captives. While incarcerated, he held a two-month hunger strike in an attempt to secure his release.
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Wikipedia