Treachery of ISIS leader Al Mawla saw comrades killed in American air strikes

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - The current leader of ISIS was an informant whose betrayal of his comrades led to at least one commander being killed in a US air strike, intelligence sources have disclosed to The National.

Amir Mohammed Al Mawla, who took over the ISIS leadership in October last year, provided American intelligence officials with “reams” of highly sensitive information on his colleagues.

The US authorities will later today release the Terrorist Interrogation Reports on Al Mawla showing that under questioning he “gave up dozens of his colleagues across the board”, a security source told The National.

Until now little has been know about Al Mawla except his nicknames of the "Professor" and the "Destroyer" and a reputation for brutality.

When he was detained by US forces in Camp Bucca, Iraq in 2004, while an Al Qaeda operative, the terror leader was shown photographs of his comrades who he identified and revealed detailed information.

He essentially gave them the lot

US intelligence source

Al Mawla’s biggest treachery was to provide information that led to the death of a fellow terrorist who was later killed in an airstrike.

“The terrorists gave loads of details on identifications, what they did, where they were, what their responsibilities were, their whereabouts, who they met with and their nationalities," the source said.

“The worst thing that will come out for him is that it looks as though on the back of the intelligence information that he gave there were US strikes that killed at least one of his comrades in arms in October 2008. So it’s not great for current ISIS people to know that their leader betrayed one of his own.”

If ISIS concludes that he did betray fellow terrorists it is possible that he will be deposed and killed.

Al Mawla also gave intelligence to the US on people in the network he had trained as well as those who had the authority to order executions and other significant roles.

“He essentially gave them the lot,” said the source. “It went along the lines of ‘this person was a specialist in mortars, he was in charge of assassinations and kidnapping and he was in charge of IEDs against coalition forces’. He gave full details on their movements and their whereabouts.”

The interrogation reports to be released in the US fill in a largely blank slate of what was known about Al Mawla. The transcripts are expected to demonstrate that Al Mawla was an American collaborator while in detention.

ISIS announced him as their new leader with the name Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi Al Qurashi after their former chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a special forces raid in October last year.

The US government later publicly identified Al Qurashi as a nom de guerre of Al Mawla, who was little was known despite his close relationship with Al Baghdadi. By going through old interrogation records US intelligence have identified him as one of their informants.

Al Mawla was a former officer in Saddam Hussein’s army and was considered one of the most prominent ISIS members in Al Baghdadi’s circle. He comes from Mahalabiyah in northern Iraq and graduated from the Islamic Sciences College in Mosul.

After the 2003 US-led invasion Al Mawla turned to violent extremism and became a religious commissary and emerged as a general sharia jurist for al-Qaeda.

After he was captured by US forces he formed a close bond with Baghdadi at Camp Bucca. It is unclear when he was released but it was assumed he returned to Mosul and his terrorist activities. In 2014 he joined ISIS and pledged allegiance to Baghdadi, allowing the terrorists to take control of Mosul.

Al Mawla was allegedly in the leadership group that gave the ruling for ISIS to murder and enslave thousands of Yazidis.

The latest intelligence reports suggest the ISIS leader is hiding in a small group of towns to the west of Mosul or that he has fled into Turkey.

The terrorist has a $10 million US bounty on his head and has been labelled a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by US Presidential Executive order.