BRITISH ISIS MEMBER SAYS HE SPENT TIME “ON PLAYSTATION AND RIDING BIKES”

FILE IMAGE: news.sky.com

22-year-old Shabazz Suleman told Sky News about his time in the terrorist group.

He said he spent some time in Syria in 2014 “doing aid work,” but then crossed over again in 2015 while on a family holiday in Turkey. He was caught by Turkish authorities on the border and put in jail with dozens of IS fighters where he says he bowed to “peer pressure”.

He agreed to be part of a prisoner swap which the Turkish authorities had brokered with IS in exchange for Turkish hostages and has remained in IS territory for the past three years. He claimed that at the beginning he had been swayed by ISIS propaganda, calling it a “romantic jihad”, which was all about protecting civilians.

“It was there to defend the Syrians – honestly I came here for that first, but ISIS changed. Four or five months into ISIS I wanted to leave,” Suleman said. He admitted receiving weapons training early on and was sent to fight on the front line of the Iraqi border, although he claims he did not fire a single shot, having managed to avoid active combat. He claims to have spent some time in an ISIS jail in Raqqa after a failed escape attempt. After a month of imprisonment, he agreed stay with ISIS, but asked for a role that kept him away from the fighting.

He said he was transferred to the Military Police – part of the IS structure aimed at keeping order amongst the civilian population. But again Suleman insisted he was mostly office-bound, playing games on his laptop or on guard duty at checkpoints. Suleman spoke about how he’d gone into hiding to try to avoid fighting, sitting in various houses in Raqqa playing Grand Theft Auto or Metal Gear Solid on a PlayStation and having “a normal life in IS territory”.

He said he would ride his bicycle and see the bodies of those who had been crucified and hung around the notorious roundabout in the city centre.

Suleman is currently help up in a Free Syrian Army jail on the Turkish border, and seeks to return to UK.

Comments

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specif

ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Search This Blog