German police believe leaked files identifying thousands of Islamic State fighters are authentic
Germany’s federal criminal police say they are also in possession of thousands of files listing the names and contact details of Islamic State fighters that were leaked to the media, and believe they are authentic.
The announcement came after Britain’s Sky News reported Wednesday that it had obtained files identifying 22,000 Islamic State members, along with their addresses, telephone numbers and even names of those who sponsored and recruited them.
In a joint report, Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in Munich and broadcasters WDR and NDR reported independently Monday they had obtained “many dozens” of pages of such documents itself.
“This is a huge data base — there are more than something like 22,000 names, so this is very, very important,” said Dalia Ghanem-Yazbeck, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Centre
Markus Koths, a spokesman for Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, the Bundeskriminalamt, said that the agency had IS documents such as those obtained by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. He would not comment on specifics about the media reports amid an ongoing investigation, and he also would not say how German intelligence obtained the documents, or how long they have been in its possession, “for tactical reasons.”
He did say, however: “We believe there is a high probability that these documents are genuine.”