Sky News Says Obtained Details of 22,000 IS Supporters

LONDON (Reuters) —
FILE - In this undated file photo released online in the summer of 2014 on a militant social media account, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy on a road leading to Iraq, in Raqqa, Syria. The extremist group that once bragged about minting its own currency is now accepting only U.S. dollars in Raqqa, slashing salaries across the board and imposing “exit fees” for those trying to leave its domain. (Militant photo via AP, File)
Terrorists of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave its flags on their vehicles in a convoy on a road leading to Iraq, in Raqqa, Syria, in this 2014 file photo. (Militant photo via AP, File)

Thousands of documents identifying 22,000 supporters of the Islamic State terror group in over 50 countries were handed over to Sky News by a disillusioned former member of the group, the British news channel reported on Thursday.

It said it had informed the authorities about the documents, which were on a memory stick 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 the Islamic State terror group.

The man, who called himself Abu Hamed, handed over the memory stick during a meeting at an undisclosed location in Turkey, according to the Sky News report.

The documents looked like enrollment forms with 23 questions, and contained names of Islamic State supporters and their relatives, as well as telephone numbers and other details such as the subjects’ areas of expertise and who had recommended them.

Sky News said some of the names were already well-known, but the documents could also help identify some terrorists who were previously unknown to the authorities in their countries.

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