Active

Terror organization: Al-Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front.

Status: Senior member.

Role: Born in Port Said, Egypt 1984. Right after his family migrated to Australia. He was born and raised in Sydney’s southern suburbs now living in Syria. He is believed to be the highest-ranking Australian member of al-Qaeda.

By the early 2000s, he was associated with a small group of fundamentalists within Sydney’s Muslim community. In 2003, those associations brought him to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. He was approached by ASIO officers and asked to provide information about a small group of Sydney men he knew, but he refused. Two years later those men were arrested in Operation Pendennis. He was seen appearing at court to support some of the men, who were convicted of planning terrorism.

Abu Sulayman was also close to Bilal Khazal, an Al-Qaeda member who had travelled to Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden. This supports what is commonly supposed, that he was associated with Al-Qaeda long before his travel to Syria. When Khazal returned to Australia, he became a key facilitator for Australians who wanted to join Al Qaeda. He was also an associate of Houssam Sabbagh, a Lebanese al-Qaeda leader in Tripoli, Lebanon who lived in Sydney from 1989 to 2005.

Abu Sulayman arrived in Syria in late 2012 and soon after was appointed as one of the most senior religious scholars within Jabhat al-Nusra. According to The Australian, Abu Sulayman was threatened by Australian Jihadist Khaled Sharrouf.

Sulayman reportedly has three children and a wife, whom he left behind in Sydney.

In May 2016, the United States declared Abu Sulayman a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” However, The Australian reported that Abu Sulayman was put on a US “kill list” a few years before. In August 2015, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop included AbuSulayman on Australia’s counter-terrorism sanctions list. In a statement released by the Australian Foreign Minister’s office, Bishop maintains that Abu Sulayman has solicited funds to finance Al-Nusrah Front’s terrorist activities and has recruited Australians to travel to Syria to join the “terror “. Australian officials calling Mahamed a “magnet” for foreign fighters traveling to Syria.

Location: Syria.

Also Known As: Abu Sulayman al-Muhajir/ Mostafa Farag.

Born: 14 February 1984;

Place of Birth: Port Said, Egypt;

Nationality: Australia; Alt. Nationality: Egypt;

Passport: M1898709 (Australia), expires 11 October 2012;

Driver’s License No.: 13652517 (Australia), expires 19 April 2014;

Activities:

Mahamed also goes by the name Mostafa Faraq, occupies a senior leadership position in al-Nusrah Front and was subjected to targeted economic sanctions by his home country of Australia in August 2015.

Mahamed has recruited Australians to fight for al-Nusrah Front and has solicited funds to finance al-Nusrah Front’s terrorist activities.