(Zaman Al Wasl)- The months that followed the liberation of Raqqah from the regime forces in March 2013 were decisive and sensitive. The city was the first center in the Syrian province to fall outside of regime authority and control and witnessed heightened diversity as political relations mixed with ideological, tribal, interests, factionalism, and intelligence concerns.
Raqqah became the playing field for multiple agendas, alliances and allegiances. For many, the months after the liberation from regime control were a chance to breathe freedom for the first time, but that was new-found freedom proved short-lived.
In an attempt to offer insight into the situation in Raqqah in those first few months following its liberation, Zaman al-Wasl will present and analyze some of the Islamic State records and documents it obtained. These resources are a means of explaining how the Islamic State monopolized control over the city taking advantage of the security vacuum, and expelling all other factions including Fateh al-Shamal-Nusra, formerly known Nusra Front.
Zaman al-Wasl exclusively obtained a set of Islamic State documents and recordings which show how the Caliphate manages various aspects of the emirate.
New ISIS data leaked by Zaman Al Wasl: documents
The documents include information about the caliphate’s business activities, military operations, detention practices and detailed records of its commanders and members’ personal information.
The documents and records offer audiences an insider’s perspective of how the Islamic State managed its affairs and dealt with different people, factions and public figures. The documents and records give an idea, even if partial, about the atmosphere which preceded the Islamic State forces monopolizing control over al-Raqqah. These resources are also temporally significant and document a period when the city witnessed different, in some cases contradictory, political orientations and projects. The documents and records also demonstrate the Islamic State’s close relations with al-Nusra Front, at that time, and that they approached the Ahrar al-Sham Movement as a related, but distant, organization.
The records and documents reveal the Islamic State’s extensive intelligence work relegated to people referred to as “security personnel.” Security personnel observed the smallest of details and included them in reports. The documents show that few people were excluded from the Islamic State’s intelligence surveillance as the documents reveal men or women, military personnel or civilians, supporters or opposition actors, public figures or private persons were all surveilled. The records include diverse reports and accusations some of which depended on security personnel observations and others on information provided by a third party, described as “testimonies.”
The documents show that the Islamic State focused on three main groups in its surveillance activities including the regime and its agents, the Free Syrian Army and its brigades, the civil society and its key figures. In its first report in the forthcoming series “Al-Raqqah in the Eyes of The Islamic State Intelligence,” Zaman al-Wasl will focus on the documents pertaining to the third category.
The newspaper will present the information available in the documents about the lawyer Abdullah al-Khalil whose disappearance remains a mystery. As well as an upcoming report on the assassination of the head of the Free al-Raqqah Council whose assassination deed preceded his disappearance by 43 months.
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