11 March,2016 08:53 AM IST | | Agencies
The announcement came after Britain’s Sky News reported it had files detailing ISIS fighters’ real names, telephone numbers, and names of their recruiters and sponsors
Berlin: Germany's federal criminal police said yesterday they are in possession of files containing personal data on members of the extremist ISIS group and believe them to be authentic.
Britain's Sky News reported it had obtained 22,000 ISIS files on the Turkey-Syria border. Pic/SKY News
Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the material would give authorities a better chance to track down and prosecute people who had fought with ISIS.
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 ISIS fighters' real names, where they were from telephone numbers and even names of those who sponsored and recruited the militants.
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.
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.
Similar files
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.
