In June of this year Canadian authorities laid terrorism charges in absentia against Canadian extremist Ahmad Waseem. A native of Windsor Ontario, Waseem had travelled to Syria not once but twice only returning to Canada for treatment of injuries for a short period in 2014.
In September of 2014 and over 15000 kms away, Suhan Rahman, an extremist from Australia had departed on a similar path to join the Islamic state. Like Waseem, Rahman called for others to make the journey to join the Islamic State and was being investigated for his terror ties by Australian investigators. Both men were very overt in their social media presence and their affiliation with the Islamic State.
Fast forward to March of this year and simultaneously reports of Rahman and Waseem’s deaths emerged on social media. From ISIS controlled territory friends of Waseem and Rahman (including Rahman’s own ISIS bride) publicly acknowledged their deaths separately.
In a follow up examination by iBRABO looking at images released by the YPG and notifications of each fighters death it turns out that both of these foreign fighters met their end on the same battlefield in Tal Hamis, Syria. In the image below both Waseem and Rahman are photographed having been killed together by the YPG offensive.
So why should we believe that Waseem and Rahman are dead?
– Both Rahman’s wife and other foreign fighters have openly claimed the deaths of both individuals. While there have been some examples of ISIS fighters faking their deaths generally there has never been a third party confirming it with photographs.
– Case in point, the YPG have been particularly good at documenting war dead in their battles and in this case the faces of both Rahman and Waseem appear intact for identification. The full photos (GRAPHIC CONTENT) can be seen here.
– The newly examined YPG photo (below) would indicate that both individuals were fighting together. It is common for ISIS units to be formed and operate in a common language (Arabic, English, German) for the purpose of communication in the field. Thus it would make sense that Waseem and Rahman (and likely other English speaking members) were in the same unit attacking the YPG.
– Drawing on the separate reports in each country we see that notifications of Waseem and Rahman’s deaths came out at the same time as the YPG documentation of ISIS war dead in Tal Hamis.
– Finally examining the YPG photos against the social media photos of Waseem and Rahman it would appear incontrovertible (see below) that they are in fact the deceased parties.
YPG Photos of Waseem and Rahman killed in Tal Hamis.
Without the ability to put investigators on the ground in Syria and Iraq, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) will remain critical for investigators tracking foreign fighters and trying to come to some kind of conclusion on their cases. To date OSINT has been used to geotrack fighters, document their involvement in fighting and provide clues to their associations within ISIS. All of which are valuable in proving terrorism charges against individuals seeking to join ISIS and other designated terror groups. No doubt in this case there will be a need to examine the links between Waseem and Rahman and their associated links to Canada and Australia. The secondary benefit of this data however is that it will potentially allow both the police and the public to put to rest the notion that Waseem and Rahman could ever return to commit further terrorist acts at home.
Also released on ibrabo.wordpress.com