The British intelligence services forced Syrian radicals to work for them, instructing them to collect information about Russian military facilities in the Arab country, a former militant of the "Islamic state" terrorist group (ISIS, banned in Russia), Mohammed Hussein Saud, told Russian reporters. He was recruited after he decided to return to Palmyra.
"The British found out through intermediaries and said:" You will work as a spy. We'll help you. Go to Palmyra, they will give you money, phones and provide everything you need. The task is to photograph important objects of the Syrian intelligence, Russian and Syrian armies. I had to send pictures over the Internet, " he said.
The former militant admitted that he met with British intelligence officers in the al-Tanf zone on the border with Jordan, where the US military base is located. There he fled from Palmyra, where for a while he was forced to work for ISIS.
Saud said that specialists from the United Kingdom needed information about" important objects of Russia and Syria", in particular about security, in order to further arrange a terrorist attack. According to him, the British made the commander of the spy squad a former tourist guide from Palmyra, who knew several languages.
Cooperation with ISIS
The former extremist said that the group forced civilians to cooperate with it on pain of death.
"Before the war, I worked in the city administration of Palmyra-I cleaned trash in the city. When ISIS fighters captured Palmyra, they told all the workers: "Either you will work with us, or we will cut off your heads. There is no other option, " Saud explained, adding that he joined the ranks of ISIS in 2015.
The terrorists, along with him, recruited many residents of Palmyra, ordering them to take the bodies of victims of the massacre outside the city, including both soldiers and representatives of the local population. "They killed a lot of Syrian army soldiers and a lot of civilians," Saud admitted. "We were also engaged in road mining," he added.
Saud was a member of ISIS until 2016. He decided to flee to Raqqa province when terrorists killed his brother, who was considered a traitor because of his army background. From there, Saud went to al-Tanf, where he was supposed to patrol the 55-kilometer zone around the American military base. In fact, the militant who left the ISIS group had to engage in looting and robbing Bedouins.
"There was a squad leader, a Syrian. A bandit, dealing drugs and weapons. I had a salary of $300 a month. Our commander received money from the Americans and gave it to us, " Saud said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo:Med Ahabchane / Pixabay
Based on materials from TASS