Isil leader ‘ratted out’ his al-qaeda counterparts to US forces, reports show

Top terrorist provided intelligence on 68 fellow jihadists to secure his release after 2008 arrest

THE current Isil leader gave intelligence to US forces leading to strikes on al-qaeda, newly released files show.

Documents released yesterday suggest Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-rahman al-mawla gave up information on dozens of fellow jihadists, along with the structure of al-qaeda in Mosul.

He allegedly provided the names of 68 al-qaeda fighters, including 19 from photographs, following his arrest in 2008.

Three tactical interrogation reports released by the Combating Terrorism Centre (CTC) allege al-mawla, who at the time was an al-qaeda judge, identified leading figures behind assassinations, kidnappings and bombings.

One jihadist was a Moroccan national called Abu Jasim Abu Qaswarah.

Thought to be the second-in-command of al-qaeda in Iraq at the time, he was killed by US forces eight months after al-mawla named him as a member of the terrorist group.

In the documents released by the West Point-based think tank, al-mawla admitted knowledge of executions and assassinations carried out by the group starting to call itself Islamic State in Iraq.

The outline the structure of al-qaeda in Iraq and the emerging Islamic State based on al-mawla’s information.

The reports say al-mawla provided details on “all key Emir positions” and monitored the group’s media cell to ensure it adhered to Sharia principles.

Tactical interrogation report ‘B’ states: “Detainee identified a number of photographs of HVI (high-value individuals) from the Mosul area.”

In a webinar hosted by the CTC Craig Whiteside, Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, said al-mawla “doesn’t seem to have much in the way of probity … he was ratting out so many of his colleagues”.

Gina Ligon, an organisational psychologist, said the documents showed “a lot of punitive language” suggesting al-mawla held grudges easily.

He most likely viewed people as “expendable resources that he could discard like cogs in a greater machine”.

Over the course of three interrogation sessions, al-mawla named 68 individuals, providing descriptions, phone numbers and roles in the organisation. Some individuals were later arrested or killed by coalition forces.

“They were key to his release so he gave them up,” Ms Ligon said. “This is a distant leader who will callously give people up when they are no longer of use to him.”

Following his arrest al-mawla was interrogated by US forces at Camp Bucca, in Umm Qasr, southern Iraq.

He was released in 2009 and only recently came to prominence when he became leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant following the death of Abu Bakr al-baghdadi in October last year.

Al-mawla, known by Isil as Abu Ibrahim al-hashimi al-qurashi, is thought to be in hiding in Syria. He is still a target of the Us-led coalition.

The 43-year-old, who is believed to be married with a son, is an Islamic scholar, although some Isil members question his religious credentials to be leader. The documents say he previously wrote speeches for al-baghdadi and was the Imam at the al-furqan mosque in Mosul.

Between 2000 and 2002, he served as a conscripted infantry soldier in Saddam Hussein’s army.

The release of the documents is most likely intended to discredit al-mawla as leader of Isil. The Us-led coalition commented on the documents on Twitter, saying they showed he had “betrayed at least 19 of his comrades”.

Haroro Ingram, of George Washington University, said the documents will “really shake trust” in the leadership of Isil. “They show he can’t be trusted.”

But the revelations will be unlikely to affect the day-to-day operation of the terrorist group which is currently carrying out small scale hit-and-run attacks in rural areas of eastern Syria and western Iraq.

‘This is a distant leader who will callously give people up when they are no longer of use to him’