Islamic State leaks reveals banned cleric Omar Bakri recruited British jihadists

From the Telegraph

The exiled radical preacher Omar Bakri Mohammad has been recruiting fighters for the Islamic State from the UK, the Telegraph can reveal.

The cleric, who was banished from Britain in 2005, was named as a sponsor by British jihadists trying to induct into Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), according to information released in one the biggest leaks of terrorist data in history.

The documents also name individuals previously not known to be fighting in Syria, including a teenager arrested in the London riots, a teacher and a Christian convert.

The mother of Fasil Towalde, from Camden, north London, who left for Syria without telling her, said on Thursday that he was a “good church boy” who had fallen in with a “bad gang”. Himan Haile confirmed her son’s identity in a tearful interview in which she said he had been raised a Christian and grew up in London after the family fled violence in their native Eritrea. “Fasil was not too much good, not too much bad. In my home he was a nice boy,” Mrs Haile said. He was arrested during the London riots and later fell in with a gang and converted to Islam in prison, she added.

Fighters from Cardiff named Bakri as their “referee”, including Reyaad Khan, 21, who was killed last September alongside another fighter in Raqqa, in the first targeted UK drone attack on a British citizen.

The Telegraph was sent the registration forms of 16 British fighters by Zaman al-Wasl, an independent Syrian newspaper opposed to the Bashar al-Assad regime and Isil. Jihadists were required to fill out a 23-question recruitment form before being accepted into the group. Under the “recommended by” question the recruits wrote “Sheikh Omar Bakri of Lebanon”.

Bakri’s involvement in directly recruiting for Isil was not previously known, however his own son Mohammed is said to have died in Aleppo province in the north of Syria last October, with it claimed he was executed by Isil for apostasy. According to the forms, one Briton had even volunteered themselves for suicide missions, including 19-year-old Muhammed Jackir, a law student from London.