Abu Bakr al-Nasr, nom de guerre ''L'Égyptien'', was an Egyptian jihadist who served as the emir of the Malian jihadist group

Al-Mourabitoun The Independent Nasserite Movement – INM () or simply Al-Murabitoun ( lit. ''The Steadfast''), also termed variously Independent Nasserite Organization (INO) or Movement of Independent Nasserists (MIN), is a Nasserist political party in Leban ...

from its foundation in 2013 until his death in 2014.

Biography

al-Nasr was born in Egypt at an unknown date. He took part in the

war in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...

fighting for the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

. In 2011, he fled to Libya when the

Libyan civil war Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. All figures are from the United Nations Demographic Yearbooks ...

broke out and established a training camp for al-Qaeda in

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

. al-Nasr met with

Mokhtar Belmokhtar Mokhtar Belmokhtar (; ;pronounced in Algerian Arabic as 1 June 1972 – November 2016), also known as Khalid Abu al-Abbas, the One-Eyed, Nelson, and the Uncatchable, was an Algerian leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former military commander ...

in the fall of 2011 in Libya, being recruited to northern Mali with him where Belmokhtar was the head of a katiba of

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (, ), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state. To that end, it was then engaged in an insurgency ...

. In late 2012, al-Nasr had a key role in planning the

In Amenas hostage crisis The In Amenas hostage crisis began on 16 January 2013, when al-Qaeda-linked terrorists affiliated with a brigade led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar took expat hostages at the Tigantourine gas facility near In Amenas, Algeria. One of Belmokhtar's sen ...

that occurred in January 2013 in Algeria. On August 22, 2013, Ahmed al-Tilemsi and Belmokhtar announced the merger between

Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (abbreviated MOJWA) or the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (abbreviated MUJWA; ''Jamāʿat at-tawḥīd wal-jihād fī gharb ʾafrīqqīyā''; , abbreviated MUJAO), was a militant Is ...

(MOJWA) and the

Blood Signatories Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is compos ...

group. They ceded leadership of the new group, dubbed

, to another unnamed person. al-Nasr was killed by the French Army between April 10 and 11, 2014, south of Timetrine. According to Malian authorities, al-Nasr was killed that night in a shootout with the French army, which left seven jihadists dead. The French Army confirmed in May that al-Nasr was the leader of al-Mourabitoun, who was previously unknown. Authorities suspected that al-Nasr was chosen to lead the movement due to his background in international jihadist movements, and his claims to personally know al-Qaeda emir

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...

. Subsequently, al-Nasr could've served as a middleman between Belmokhtar and al-Zawahiri.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasr, Abu Bakr al- 2014 deaths Egyptian Muslims People killed in the Mali War Taliban Members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb