Australia

• 2012 - 2014
• Australia ,
• Iraq ,
• Syrian Arab Republic ,
• Turkey

Identification of the Source

A report by The International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR): "Victims, Perpetrators, Assets: The Narratives of Islamic State Defectors" by Peter R. Neumann, 2015.

Description

The Syrian anonymous initially joined an Islamist brigade of the Free Syrian Army to fight the Assad regime. His first orders as an ISIS fighter, were to attend a course on Sharia, or Islamic law. However, he became disillusioned by the "brutality" of the extremists and escaped to Turkey.
XX1 was just 14 when recruited by ISIS. At the end of the training, he was told his trainers wanted him to go fight in Iraq. He was driven, with other new fighters, in a minibus to Mosul. Late last year, he approached the gate of a Shia mosque, unzipped his jacket to reveal a vest of explosives, and surrendered himself to the guards. The guards removed the vest and XX1 was taken away and interviewed by intelligence officers.
In 2012 XX2 went to Syria to provide humanitarian aid for the Syrian people.
After two years of struggles, employed as a medic, he was injured was treated in an ISIS run hospital.
A few days after, he was moved to a recovery house, where he said he began to understand it was assumed he would join the militant group.
In late December 2014, he made a break for the Turkish border by staying in a friend’s house and then a taxi driver came to drive him away.

Type of Crime

To join the Islamic State in Syria

Modus Operandi

- identify possible technologies, which helped in committing the crime(s)
Brainwashing, military training.

People involved

Anonymous Syrian man;
XX1 (Syrian);
XX2, XX3 (Australian).

Criminal History

Influential and/or vulnerable Groups

"We started being taught that Shiites were raping Sunni women, and that Shiites were killing Sunni men";
"They seduced us to join the caliphate";
"They planted the idea in me that Shias are infidels and we had to kill them";
He said he was told Shia militants would come to rape his mother if he did not fight. Soon, though, he said, "I noticed things I saw that were different from Islam."