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Watch ISIS Jihadist Salah Abdeslam Partying Months Before Paris Terror Attacks

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 23:16 PST, Mar 29, 2016

A video which has recently come to light shows ISIS militants Brahim and Salah Abdeslam drinking, partying, and having fun only months before they participated in the Paris terror attacks which killed 130 people and injured many more.

As reported by The Inquisitr, after a four-month manhunt following the Paris terror attacks, Salah Abdeslam was finally captured. After his arrest, it was made clear that the jihadist network responsible for the attacks was larger than previously thought, as Abdeslam gave officials background information.

However, Abdeslam has since gone quiet after links between the Paris and Brussels terror attacks became evident and has not cooperated with officials since the Brussels airport attack.

The two Belgian national Abdeslam brothers lived in the Brussels district of Molenbeek. They were captured on video at a concert by French rapper Lacrim in the upmarket area of Avenue Louise in Brussels.

In the video included above, both brothers appeared to be living life to the fullest, dancing, drinking, and having fun. Brahim, 31, can be seen with a cigarette in hand, chatting to a blond girl and Salah, 27, wearing an orange sweatshirt, was dancing to the sound of the music playing in the background. The phone footage of the Abdeslam brothers was reportedly obtained by CNN and was taken by a friend of the two brothers.

It was nine months after this that Brahim blew himself up close to a café on Boulevard Voltaire in Paris, killing and injuring people, while his brother Salah allegedly backed out at the last minute, dropping his suicide vest and returning to Brussels. Abdeslam was identified by DNA found on the suicide vest left lying in the street after the attacks of November 13.

The friend that recorded the video on his phone – along with other friends of the brothers – was reportedly at a loss to explain how, after only a short period of time, the two Abdeslam brothers could abruptly turn from being fun-loving, party-going young men to brutal Islamist killers.

Speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity, the friend said, “That was the last time I saw them drink.”

The New York Daily News quotes the friend as explaining that the two Abdeslam brothers were “nice people,” and that, “I suppose you could say they lived life to the full.” Another of their friends described Salah as “something of a ladies’ man” who enjoyed partying, drinking, and playing cards.

As reported by the International Business Times, Salah Abdeslam and his brother used to run a bar named “Les Beguines” in the quiet area of Karreveld in Molenbeek, which is reportedly a multi-ethnic neighborhood and has since become infamous as a hotbed of jihadi recruitment. A friend said of the pub that it was renowned in the area as being a small drug-dealing hub, shut down by authorities just weeks before the November Paris attacks. However the friend added, “It was a fun place. It felt like family.”

In fact, Salah Abdeslam was captured close to the premises of that bar on March 18 and it is believed that his arrest may have led to the precipitated preparation for the attack at Brussels Airport, carried out on March 22. Reportedly Salah’s alleged accomplices feared the police net was closing in around them.

However, the appearance of the video has reinforced current perceptions that the Abdeslam brothers were relatively new to the ISIS jihadi network and that they had little religious background or education. In fact, many members of the ISIS cells that attacked both Paris and Brussels were, in fact, European nationals from disadvantaged migrant backgrounds that had turned radical Islamists after following a life of petty crime and vice.

[Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]

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