Originally from Strasbourg, Aggad allegedly travelled to Syria as part of a group of young men, including his eldest brother Karim, 25, in December 2013.
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French police managed to identify the gunman who was killed in the Bataclan attack, after his mother received a text message from her son announcing to her his death. Two others were identified earlier as Samy Amimour, who had fought in Yemen, and Omar Ismail Mostefai, who fought in Syria in 2013.
If he’d found out, Said Mohamed-Aggad said he wouldn’t have let his son join the ranks of attackers who unleashed carnage at the Bataclan theater in Paris last month. Some – including his brother – returned of their own will, telling investigators they were disgusted by what they had seen.
“The SMS message told her that her son had died, saying: “He died on November 13 with his brothers”, said the family’s lawyer, Francoise Cotta.
On one mobile phone, there was a picture of Mohamed-Aggad, smiling and clad in a headband sporting the colors of the Islamic State.
A further 40 people were killed in a string of coordinated attacks in and around Paris on the same evening.
Mohamed-Aggad arrived in Syria around the same time as the other two Bataclan attackers, also French citizens, and the arrival of now-deceased Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected planner of the attack. Of the 130 killed in Paris that night, almost three-quarters died in the concert venue.
Almost 1,500 people were watching Californian band Eagles of Death Metal play at the Bataclan when the gunmen opened fire.
Officials have yet to put names to all of eight dead gunmen and suicide bombers directly involved in last month’s attacks, for which Islamic State, a militant group that controls swathes of Syria and Iraq, claimed responsibility.
They were with an unidentified man who apparently carried a fake Syrian passport under the name Ahmad al-Mohammad.
Abdeslam had visited the prisoner twice during his incarceration in the southern city of Namur, the last time in October, RTBF said.
Their journey was reportedly facilitated by an alleged French jihadist recruiter, Mourad Fares, who was later arrested in Turkey in 2014. Mohamed-Aggad’s father Said told a Parisian paper, according to the AP.
Several of the group, but not the Bataclan bomber, were later arrested upon returning to France, Le Parisien said.
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All three are now known to have been French nationals.
