Jenan Moussa Profile picture
Sep 17, 2020 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
1/ EXCLUSIVE: I worked for last 3 weeks on this story about ISIS leader Amir al Mawla.

Until now not much is known about him but files shared with me by @CTCWP are a treasure trove.

Here is Al Mawla's identity card. And he isn't a Turkmen but an Arab.
2/ Already 12 yrs ago, in Jan 2008, U.S. forces in Iraq captured Amir Al Mawla in Mosul. Back then, Al Mawla worked with the ISI – the Islamic State of Iraq. The US army interrogated him extensively & wrote everything down in “tactical interrogation reports.”

@akhbar @CTCWP
3/ I now have 3 of these "tactical interrogation reports". The reports were first obtained by @CTCWP, who then shared them exclusively with me.

Because Al Mawla became 12 yrs later the head of ISIS, the interrogations with him from 2008 are now extremely relevant.

@akhbar
4/ The fact that until now not much was known about ISIS chief Al Mawla also makes these "tactical interrogation reports" extra important.

They contain a treasure trove of info. For instance, in it I found Iraqi ID card of Al Mawla which he carried when arrested.

@akhbar @CTCWP
5/ Acc to the interrogation reports, Amir Al Mawla (now the chief of ISIS) was born in Oct 1976.

Not in Tal Afar but in town of Mahalabiyah.

Al Mawla told his U.S. captors during interrogations that his ethnicity is “Arab”. This ends rumors that Al Mawla is an ethnic Turkmen.
6/ The fact that Al Mawla is an Arab was independently confirmed to me by a reliable source inside Mahalabiyah.

Acc to this source & to the ID card, Amir Al Mawla belongs to Al-Slibi tribe, which is a branch of the larger al Mawla tribe. Both tribes are of Arab origin.
7/ Already for over a century, al- Slibi tribe lives in parts of Iraq which are traditionally ethnic Turkmen, near Mahalabiyah & Tal Afar. So al-Slibi’s are close to the Turkman and speak fluent Turkish but are themselves Arabs. ISIS chief Al Mawla speaks both Arabic and Turkish.
8/ But there are many more details found in these interrogation reports from 2008.

For instance, back in 2008 Al Mawla (now the current chief of ISIS) had one wife and a son.

His wife’s name is: Isra Abd al Rahman Ali.

His deceased mother is named: Samira Sharif Abd al Qadir.
9/ When current ISIS chief Amir Al Mawla was arrested by U.S. troops in Jan 2008, he was the General Shari’i Amir for Mosul.

In 2007 he had become Mosul's deputy wali.

After long interrogations by U.S. forces, Al Mawla was handed over to the Iraqi government &later released.

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More from @jenanmoussa

Jul 1
1/ ISIS acted harshly against its enemies. But 400 ISIS docs now show that ISIS also mistreated its own citizens &fighters. Corruption &violence were widespread. Today, @CTCWP releases those 400 docs. I was allowed to preview them. Here my @akhbar story:
2/ The almost 400 ISIS docs are mostly messages of citizens to ISIS officials complaining about other ISIS officials.

Complaints of illegal arrests, beatings, ISIS soldiers committing theft, torture...

Complaints are from 2015 - 2017, when ISIS caliphate consisted of large parts of Syria & Iraq. Many complaints are addressed to the ISIS wali of Raqqah. Some files are from Iraq or Yemen.
3/ These documents were found by the U.S. army in Syria and Iraq. Today, @CTCWP publishes these docs. I was allowed to preview the documents for @akhbar exclusively.

All the original docs in Arabic and the English translation can be found here:
ctc.westpoint.edu/the-caliphate-…
Read 14 tweets
Jun 26
1/ On June 16, @CENTCOM conducted airstrike in Syria killing an ISIS official. Btwn all the news from Ukraine & Gaza, it hardly got any attention. Even location of strike wasn't known. That got me interested. For @akhbar I started investigating. Thread.👇
akhb.ar/N79p2
2/ First, I started contacting my sources in Syria. Who heard of an airstrike that killed one man on Sunday 16, the day before Eid? And if yes, where did it happen? And was this indeed the same strike that the Americans conducted?
3/ Sources told me that somebody was killed by an airstrike nearby Afrin. Then, I spoke to @farhad_shami, head of the media center of the SDF. He confirmed it too. “We had knowledge of the [recent] operation,” said Shami. “The movements of the target were monitored. Especially during the last two days before the operation. He was moving around Al Bab, Mare’ and finally Afrin.”
Read 11 tweets
Apr 19, 2023
1/ The last hours of a killed ISIS leader's life looked like a Hollywood movie. Not only did he escape twice, also villagers tell @akhbar US forces killed 2rebels who had nothing to do with ISIS.

My EXCLUSIVE reconstruction of a deadly US raid in NSyria:
tinyurl.com/2t3yccaa
2/ As the story is published in Arabic on the website of my company @akhbar, I will post the main points in English in this thread. Of course, you can also open the Arabic page and use google Translate. tinyurl.com/2t3yccaa
3/ The US raid took place last Monday around 0130 AM near Jarablus. I sent 2 sources to the area. They spoke to witnesses; neighbors, relatives &villagers. They also exclusively visited the targeted house where the ISIS leader secretly lived. This is a drone shot of that house: Image
Read 23 tweets
Nov 16, 2022
1/ Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate tells @akhbar: “Yes, I regret that I ever said during 1979 Revolution: Long live Khomeini.” Watch my exclusive interview with Dr. Shirin Ebadi on current uprising in Iran. Powerful words. I'll tweet some parts out.
2/ Dr. Ebadi tells me: “We admit that [1979 protests] were a mistake when we see what's happening 2day in Iran. (...) those who were in jail say torture now is worse than during prev regime [of Shah]. Agents of current regime more bloodthirsty & violent.”
3/ I asked Dr. Ebadi about Iran's nuclear program. "The moment a democratic government is established in Iran, work on nuclear program will stop," she said. "It has cost Iran so much. (…) nuclear program isolates Iran from region & from world.”
@akhbar
Read 10 tweets
Sep 12, 2022
1/ Interesting. @akhbar interviewed Omar bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden. His father took him as a child to Afghanistan. Now he +wife live in Normandy, France. “French landscape helps me to relax,” he says, “I started painting &I'm enjoying it a lot.”

2/ Omar bin Laden explains he paints the mountains of Afghanistan in red & black. “I lived there for almost a year," he says, "Big mountains, tough terrain. Red represents the suffering, pain & blood. Black, the darkness, no electricity, height & depth of the mountains.”

@akhbar
3/ “End of my period with my father was in Tora Bora,” Omar bin Laden continues, “there was lots of bombing, killing, many lives were lost. Whether they were innocent or not, fighters &non-fighters, but I was effected by these bloody scenes. That's why I paint these mountains.”
Read 4 tweets
Aug 21, 2022
1/ Eight yrs ago ISIS launched a terror campaign against Iraq's Yazidis. Leila was enslaved by ISIS. Today she still lives in a camp. “Most ISIS women live better than me,” she tells me on my show on @akhbar, “Many came back to Iraq & some even to Europe.”
2/ ISIS terror started in August 2014. Leila now is 28 yrs old. She's from Sinjar, heart land of Iraq's Yazidis. She was 20 when ISIS attacked. She was kidnapped by ISIS &enslaved for 5 years. In 2019 she escaped. 10 family members still missing among them her father & brothers.
3/ Leila says: "Years passed & I still don't know what happened to my family! Someone should do something. We all want bodies of our martyrs back or if they're alive we want news about them. They keep on saying, be patient. We have no patience anymore.”
Read 5 tweets

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