Gang de Roubaix

Last updated
Gang de Roubaix
Leader Christophe Caze
Dates of operation27 January 1996 (1996-01-27)-29 March 1996 (1996-03-29)
MotivesDestruction of a G7 meeting in Lille
Active regions Flag of France.svg France
Ideology Al-Qaeda
Major actionsrobberies
Notable attacksMissed car Bombing against a Police precinct in Lille, Armored Car Robbery, Murder
Statusdismantled
Size18 terrorists
Means of revenuebank robberies

Gang de Roubaix was a terrorist cell tied with the Islamist group Al-Qaeda. Its members were suspected of various bloody bank attacks, murder and a missed car bombing attack against a G7 Finance ministers meeting in Lille.

Contents

Their history ended with a R.A.I.D. assault against their Roubaix HQ in 1996.

Background

In 1992, the Bosnian War began in Bosnia and Herzegovina involving three ethnic groups: Bosnian Serbs, supported by Serbia, Bosnian Croats supported by Croatia and Bosniaks. Bosniaks received some support (financial and military) from Muslim countries.

Among the foreigners arriving in Bosnia were Christophe Caze, a French medicine student, who began taking care of casualties in Zenica. Soon afterwards, he converted to Islam and radicalized slowly. During his stay in Zenica, he made friends with Fateh Kamel, Mohammed Omary and Lionel Dumont, members of the Bosnian mujahideen and participated in the war.[ citation needed ]

In 1995, the Bosnian War ended with the Dayton Agreement. All the mujahideen, including Caze who joined them, were asked to leave Bosnia. Then Kamel, who was working for the GIA, convinced Caze and Dumont, to commit terrorist attacks in their home countries because of the diplomatic relationships between France and Algeria.[ citation needed ]

Kamel organized counterfeited administrative documents in his home country of Canada to allow his associates to escape safely after the attacks. Meanwhile, Caze and Dumont began recruiting in Roubaix, France and went to Bosnia in order to buy heavy weaponry with financial help from Abu Hamza al-Masri in London. [1]

Attacks in France

In late 1996, the newly created cell began spreading terror. In order to fund their future attacks, they planned several criminal acts. [2]

On 27 January 1996, some of their members, including Dumont, stole an Audi car but encountered a police patrol, who thought that they were dealing with minor criminals. Immediately, the group fired on the police with assault rifles, injuring one of the police officers who was hit twice. However, the attackers' weapons malfunctioned and the police were able to escape.

On 8 February 1996, they robbed a supermarket but had to flee when the police arrived. The ensuing chase ended with the group's car crashing. While firing on the police, they killed a Mercedes driver, Hammoud Feddal and stole his car. [3]

On 25 March eight members of the gang assaulted a Brink's armoured truck near a shopping mall, injuring the driver in the leg. The attackers couldn't access the money and fled. [4]

On 28 March the group parked a Peugeot 205, with 4 gas tanks linked to a detonator in the boot, beside a police precinct in Lille. The whole building was supposed to be destroyed by the blast. However, the bomb malfunctioned, destroying only the car.

The end

For several days, the gang had been under surveillance after the failed assault against the Brink's truck. The police officers succeeded in locating the gang's: the house of one of the members in Roubaix.

The day following the failed attack of 28 March, the police decided to intervene. The RAID, a French anti-terrorist Special unit, surrounded and stormed the house. The four men who were inside fought back with assault rifles, screaming that they'd rather die than surrender. The RAID team fired back and launched smoke grenades. A grenade, launched by the group, injured another policeman and started a fire in the house. After several minutes of heavy gunfighting, the roof of the building, weakened by the fire, collapsed on the 3 remaining gang members. The toll of the assault was 4 dead and two police officers injured, including one seriously. [5]

The others members of the gang, who were located in several other locations, managed to escape. All the police units were scrambled.

Several hours later, Caze, who had managed to escape, was killed by Belgian police.

Aftermath

An electronic address book was found on Caze's body which permitted the arrest of Fateh Kamel and Mohammed Omary. Kamel was the leader of a terrorist cell in Montreal, suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Los Angeles.

After escaping all across Europe, Dumont was finally arrested in Germany in 2003. As of 2012 he was serving a 25-year sentence in France. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAID (French police unit)</span> Elite tactical unit of the French National Police

Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion, commonly abbreviated RAID, is an elite tactical unit of the French National Police. Founded in 1985, it is headquartered in Bièvres, Essonne, approximately 20 kilometres southwest of Paris. RAID is the National Police counterpart of the National Gendarmerie's GIGN. Both units share responsibility for the French territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shootout</span> Combat between two parties using firearms

A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is an armed confrontation entailing firearms between armed parties using guns, always entailing one or more intense disagreements between the involved parties. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.

Christophe Caze was a French terrorist and criminal, a former medical student in Lille, France. Caze was one of France's foremost terrorists.

The Bosnian War attracted large numbers of foreign fighters and mercenaries from various countries. Volunteers came to fight for a variety of reasons including religious or ethnic loyalties, but mostly for money. Generally, Bosniaks received support from Muslim countries, Serbs from Eastern Orthodox countries, and Croats from Catholic countries. The numbers, activities and significance of the foreign fighters were often misrepresented. However, none of these groups constituted more than five percent of any of the respective armies' total manpower strength.

The 1995 Rijeka bombing occurred on 20 October 1995 in Rijeka, Croatia, when an Islamic terrorist organization attempted to destroy a police station by driving a car with a bomb into the wall of the building. Twenty-seven employees in the police station and two bystanders on the street were injured, although the only person killed was the perpetrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Croat–Bosniak War</span> 1992–1994 armed conflict within the Bosnian War

The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the internationally recognized Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the so-called Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, supported by Croatia, that lasted from 18 October 1992 to 23 February 1994. It is often referred to as a "war within a war" because it was part of the larger Bosnian War. In the beginning, the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) fought together in an alliance against the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). By the end of 1992, however, tensions between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council increased. The first armed incidents between them occurred in October 1992 in central Bosnia. The military alliance continued until early 1993, when it mostly fell apart and the two former allies engaged in open conflict.

Bosnian mujahideen, also called El Mudžahid, were foreign Muslim volunteers who fought on the Bosnian Muslim side during the 1992–95 Bosnian War. They first arrived in central Bosnia in the latter half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Bosnian Muslim co-religionists in fights against Serb and Croat forces. Initially they mainly came from Arab countries, later from other Muslim-majority countries. Estimates of their numbers vary from 500 to 5,000 with most estimates in the 1,000–2,000 range.

Fateh Kamel is an Algerian who was arrested in 1999 on charges of supporting a terrorist plot against attacks against French targets in Paris, and was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.

<i>Mujahideen</i> Arabic term for people engaged in jihad ("struggle")

Mujahideen, or Mujahidin, is the plural form of mujahid, an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in jihad, interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the community (ummah).

Operation Miracle was a successful attack by the foreign troops of the Bosnian Mujahideen against the village of Krčevine in the Zavidovići municipality on 21 July 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the Croat–Bosniak War</span> Listing of important events

The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, supported by Croatia, that lasted from 19 June 1992 – 23 February 1994. The Croat-Bosniak War is often referred to as a "war within a war" because it was part of the larger Bosnian War.

Lionel Dumont is a former French soldier currently serving a 25-year sentence in prison. He converted to Islam after serving with peacekeepers in Somalia. He was later accused of participating in the Gang de Roubaix, which unsuccessfully tried to set a car bomb during the G7 meeting in Lille in March 1996.

The 2010 Jama Masjid attack occurred on 19 September 2010 when two gunmen on a motorcycle fired at a tourist bus near Gate 3 of the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, India and injured two Taiwanese tourists. The incident provoked fears about security for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi. About three hours later a car parked approximately 150 meters from the spot caught fire, apparently due to a minor blast.

The Batla House encounter case was an armed Delhi Police operation to arrest terrorists of the terrorist outfit called 'Indian Mujahideen' (IM), hiding in a flat in the Batla House area of Jamia Nagar, Okhla, on 19 September 2008. The operation resulted in the deaths of two terrorists and one police officer, Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, with the remaining terrorists arrested. On 15 March 2021, one of the arrested Ariz Khan alias Junaid, was sentenced to death for the murder of Inspector Sharma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Vrbanja Bridge</span> 1995 Bosnian War confrontation

The Battle of Vrbanja Bridge was an armed confrontation which took place on 27 May 1995, between United Nations (UN) peacekeepers from the French Army and elements of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). The fighting occurred at the Vrbanja Bridge crossing of the Miljacka river in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. The VRS seized the French-manned United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) observation posts on both ends of the bridge, taking hostage 12 French peacekeepers. Ten were taken away, and two were kept at the bridge as human shields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism in France</span>

Terrorism in France refers to the terrorist attacks that have targeted the country and its population during the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism, in this case is much related to the country's history, international affairs and political approach. Legislation has been set up by lawmakers to fight terrorism in France.

There has been an increase in incidents involving alleged radical Islamism in the Balkans since the 1990s.

On 15 and 18 March 2016, Belgian police carried out raids on houses in Brussels. The raids were conducted in connection to the attacks in Paris four months earlier. In the raids, one suspect was killed and five others were arrested, including Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the 10-man unit that carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks.

On the morning of 9 August 2017, a car rammed into a group of soldiers in the Levallois-Perret commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris. Six soldiers patrolling the area as part of Opération Sentinelle were injured in the attack, three of them seriously. The driver fled the scene and, several hours later, was shot and arrested by an elite police unit on a highway near the town of Marquise, Pas-de-Calais after attempting to ram a roadblock. According to the French police the incident was terrorist-related. The attack is part of a series of similar attacks by jihadists in Western countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Uno Gang</span> Criminal gang in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The White Uno Gang was an Italian criminal organization operating mainly in Emilia-Romagna and Marche.

References

  1. L'islamiste manchot arrêté à Londres
  2. Terrier, Nelly (2001-10-01). "Le " gang de Roubaix ", du banditisme au terrorisme". leparisien.fr (in French). Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  3. Roubaix: un mort lors d'une course-poursuite. Après un cambriolage raté, des gangsters ont pris la fuite et tué un automobiliste. - Libération
  4. Un blessé dans l'attaque d'un fourgon blindé près de Roubaix - Libération [ incomplete short citation ]
  5. "Assaut du Raid : le précédent de Roubaix, il y a 16 ans". ladepeche.fr (in French). Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  6. "1996 : le gang de Roubaix". Archived from the original on August 4, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2012.