The United States on Thursday identified an Islamic State bomb maker who crafted several of the explosives used in the 2015 attacks in Paris, as well as the coordinated suicide bombings in Brussels last year, the State Department announced.
Ahmad Alkhald, a Syrian national who is still at large, traveled to Europe to help plan the coordinated attacks in Paris, where he manufactured the explosives vests used in the coordinated bombings on a concert hall, soccer stadium, and café, the State Department said in a statement, declaring his designation as a global terrorist.
Alkhald left Europe just before the ISIS-claimed assault on Paris and returned to Syria, where he continued to advise operatives in Europe on engineering the bombs deployed in the March 2016 attacks on a subway and airport in Brussels.
The listing describes Alkhald as the "explosives chief" of the terrorist cell that carried out both attacks. He is presumed to be in hiding in Syria.
French authorities said in March they found traces of Alkhald's DNA on the suicide vest worn by an ISIS operative who blew himself up in a crowded café during the Paris attacks, according to Pakistan's Daily Times.
The State Department also designated as a terrorist Abu Yahya al-Iraqi, a senior ISIS operative who reported directly to the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Al-Iraqi and Alkhald join 30 other ISIS leaders named on the State Department's global terrorist list. They are all subject U.S. sanctions and denied access to the American financial system.