Osama Krayem
Osama Krayem (born 1992) is a Swedish national of Syrian origin and a suspected terrorist involved in 2016 Brussels bombings.[1] He was one of five men arrested on 8 April 2016 by the Belgian police, with another of those detained being terrorist suspect Mohamed Abrini.
Krayem was born to Syrian immigrants to Sweden and grew up in Rosengård, Malmö Municipality, Sweden. He is thought to have been radicalized in Sweden watching extensively videos by Anwar al-Awlaki. He also reportedly tried to recruit other Arab Swedish youth to join the fight in Syria.[2] left the country sometime in 2014 to join ISIS in Syria to fight alongside the anti-Assad islamic militant group. He was said to be one of the first Muslim Swedes to have left the country to join ISIS. In January 2015, he was identified by the Swedish press yet again in a Facebook post sent to his brother in Sweden showing him reportedly in Deir ez-Zor, Syria dressed in military fatigues, standing in front of an ISIS flag and holding an AK-47.
He later returned to Europe using a false passport travelling the migrant route from Syria to Turkey to Leros, Greece where he presented himself on 20 September 2015 as Naïm Al Hamed (identified as a Syrian national born on 1 January 1988 and originating from Hama, Syria) according to the papers. Under this guise Naïm Al Hamed he continued to Belgium. Reaching Germany the beginning of October 2015, Krayem allegedly met Salah Abdeslam in German city of Ulm.[1] Abdeslam was one of the Belgian suspected terrorists involved 13 November 2015 Paris attacks. Abdeslam went on hiding in Molenbeek, belgium where he was arrested on 18 March 2016.
Krayem is believed to be the man seen on CCTV at the Brussels City 2 shopping centre, where he bought the rucksacks used later for the 22 March 2016 terror attack in Brussels Airport in Zaventem. He is also thought to have been the second man alongside bomber Khalid el-Bakraoui at the Pétillon metro station. El-Bekraoui is thought to have carried out the bombing of Maelbeek metro station minutes later on the morning of 22 March 2016.[2]