Salmi al-Mahasnah: Ansar Beit al-Maqdis militant responsible for arms and logistical support

Ahmed Adel

The Ramadan 2020 TV series “El-Ekhteyar” (The Choice) revealed the reality of the terrorists who thought they were prepared to confront the Egyptian armed forces after one year of the Brotherhood controlling the reins of affairs in the country.

“El-Ekhteyar” stars Amir Karara, Ahmed al-Awadi, Dina Fouad, Sarah Adel, Mohamed Imam, Mohamed Ragab, Karim Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Majed Al Masry, Mohamed Ezz, Maha Nassar and many more, and it was written by Bahir Dowidar, directed by Peter Mimi, and produced by Synergy. The series was considered one of highest rated dramas in Ramadan this year, largely due to its revelations about the reality of the Brotherhood and its relationship to the prevalence of terrorism and extremism in Egypt.

The series deals with the life story of Ahmed Saber al-Mansi, commander of the 103rd Battalion, who was martyred during an ambush at Berth Square in the Egyptian city of Rafah in 2017 while countering a terrorist attack in Sinai.

A penitential figure to have appeared in the series and who made a clear imprint in the terrorist events carried out by the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis terrorist group following the Brotherhood’s period of rule was Salmi al-Mahasnah, portrayed by actor Yasser Ezzat.

Salmi Salama Salim Sulayman, known as Salmi al-Mahasnah, took over the leadership of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis after the killing of the organization’s founder, Tawfiq Freij Ziyada, to whom he was close. Salmi comes from Ismailia Governorate and holds an industrial technical diploma, and his family resides in Sharqeya.

Investigations by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which monitored the terrorist group in 2015, revealed that Salmi had assumed the leadership of the group and had contacted al-Qaeda to pledge allegiance to leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. He had also contacted the Palestinian militant group Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades in the Gaza Strip to provide the group with financial, military and logistical support to carry out terrorist operations in Egypt, taking advantage of the security situation in the aftermath of the January 25, 2011 revolution.

In 2016, Egypt’s security forces released a list of names in the group , including Abu Asra (Salmi al-Mahasnah), Sabri Khalil Abdel-Ghani Al-Nakhlawi, Abu Jaafar (Fayez Eid Abu Zeina), Walid Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Al-Sayyid Awad (Walid al-Saeedi), Ahmed Fouad Ahmed Abdel-Ghani (Al-Harki Azzam), Mahmoud Ibrahim, and many others.

Salmi also assumed the leadership of the Sinai Province organization after Tawfiq Freij was killed and restructured the organization, pledging allegiance to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in October 2019. Salmi commissioned his cadres to recruit new elements and prepare them through educational courses to adopt the organization’s ideology based on making takfir against the ruler and security forces and obligating their targeting in terrorist operations, as well as targeting members of the Christian community and their houses of worship. The group also sought to target vital state facilities, especially those affiliated with the security services, and the militants also used social media to communicate, incite, and spread false information.

Salmi also helped establish a route to travel to Libya to train elements, in addition to a camp in the Abu Hadi Palace in the Libyan city of Sirte to train the organization’s new elements on the use of all kinds of weapons, as well as guerrilla and urban warfare. They were also trained in preparing explosives and how to avoid monitoring by security forces as they prepare to infiltrate the country to commit terrorist operations, while the supply line secured weapons through Libya. The organization was also restructured and divided it into two groups, the first led by Ashmawi in the Valley region and the second in Sinai headed by Shadi al-Munai’i.

In June 2016, investigations by the Supreme State Security Prosecution revealed that there is a line to supply the organization with weapons through Libya, supervised by Salmi, and that the organization witnessed several changes, including Hesham Ashmawi leaving the group to join the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council in Libya, while Khalil al-Munai’i was promoted as the organization’s military leader.