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| Germany says it has obtained files on Islamic State members | Germany says it has obtained files on Islamic State members |
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| BERLIN — Germany’s federal criminal police said Thursday they are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist Islamic State group and believe them to be authentic. | |
| The announcement came after Britain’s Sky News reported it had obtained 22,000 Islamic State files on the border with Turkey and Syria, files that detail IS fighters’ real names, where they were from, telephone numbers, and even names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants. | |
| The files could be the largest yet treasure trove of documents found on IS and the most significant leak on its fighters and operations across the Mideast. It could also significantly shape the campaign against the extremist group, which emerged formal-Qaida in Iraq. The cache, exposing its members and their families, could undermine its future ability to recruit and inspire would-be members. | |
| The broadcaster said the files were passed on to them on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State’s internal security police by a former fighter who had grown disillusioned with the group. | |
| Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported it had also obtained “dozens” of similar files on the Turkey-Syria border, where it said Islamic State files and videos were widely available from anti-IS Kurdish fighters and also members of the Islamic State group itself. | |
| A spokeswoman for Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter with the media, said her agency is currently evaluating the files. She declined to say where the agency obtained the files, how many documents are involved and how long it has had them. | |
| Sky reported that the documents are a collection of forms filled out by recruits when they were inducted into the Islamic State. The forms have 23 questions and include nationals from at least 51 countries, Sky reported. | |
| Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the dpa news agency that the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with IS. | |
| The material also seems to have the potential to help authorities crack recruitment networks in Europe and elsewhere that have been sending fighters to join the Islamic State group, which has seized large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq and declared a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control. | |
| There are no clear estimates of how many Islamic State fighters there are in Iraq and Syria, but the numbers range between 30,000 and 100,000. A CIA assessment in late 2014 put the number of IS fighters at around 31,500. | |
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| Associated Press Writer Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report. | |
| Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |