Counter-Terrorism

TIJ journalists interview Mohamed Amrouni, age 23, a captured Islamic State member jailed in Syria for the past year and a half. He shifts nervously in his plastic chair in front of a camera as he expresses “deep regret. ” Award-winning TIJ journalist Lindsey Snell produces a story about his radicalization in his home country Tunisia in 2013 until his capture and sheds light on the saga around the fate of thousands of Islamic State fighters locked up in Syria and Iraq as ISIS loses ground. Lindsey Snell knows his family in Tunisia and kept in touch with him online despite his assertions then that he ‘loves’ killing Kufars–nonbelievers and that he would kill Snell too.

Abdullah Bozkurt, is a Turkish journalist for over 20 years, the president of the Stockholm Center for Freedom reveals a trove of secret documents that portray how Turkey illegally sent thousands of trucks loaded with heavy weapons and ammunition to jihadist groups fighting in Syria The loads were then transferred to tractor-trailer trucks at the secluded section of the capital’s airport, away from prying eyes. The trucks covered approximately 404 miles (650 kilometers) via the land route to deliver the arms to a pre-determined location near the border area, and from there was moved to destinations in Syria where waiting jihadist groups could use them.

Ahmet S. Yayla is a 20-year veteran of counter-terrorism in the Turkish National Police and a professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. He explains how Erdoğan’s government supported, financed and helped ISIS.