British fighters, as well as recruits from USA, Canada, France and Germany are among Islamic State Jihadists reportedly named in a cache of 22, 000 documents obtained by German intelligence.
The existence of the documents was revealed by the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung paper and German broadcasters WDR and NDR on Monday evening. Zaman al-Wasl, a pro-opposition Syrian website, published examples of the questionnaires seem to have been collected at the end of 2013.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
The syrian News website reported that personal details of 1, 736 fighters from 40 countries had been revealed – a quarter were Saudis and the rest predominantly Tunisian, Moroccan and Egyptian.
Sky News claimed on Tuesday that it too has obtained copies of what appeared to be the same documents, containing about 22, 000 names. It said the they were passed on a memory stick stolen from Isis internal security police by a former Free Syrian Army convert who later became disillusioned with Isis.
The British television channel said it had informed the authorities about the documents, stolen from the head of Islamic State’s internal security force by a man who had been part of the Free Syrian Army rebel group before joining Islamic State.
The man, handed over the memory stick in Turkey, according to the Sky News report.
The documents, written in Arabic and stamped with Isis’ logos, allegedly contain details of names not previously known to the intelligence services.
Even the lowest estimate of the numbers that crossed the border in that period indicates the sheer scale of volunteers to Isis. The documents will be useful to intelligence agencies in confirming names and details of people suspected of joining Isis.