A 31-year-old citizen of Tunisia, Kerim Amara, until recently was a commander in the ranks of Daesh. He joined the jihadists in 2013 and was captured by Kurdish forces in 2015.
After fighting on the side of Daesh for a year in Ramadi, Amara was send to Aleppo where he fought against the Free Syrian Army for more than two months. Later on he was sent to Kobani where he was eventually captured by Kurdish forces.
Recalling his time as a commander of Daesh, Amara said that Turkey helped the militants to find new members for the group. “In all time that I was in the ranks of Daesh, I never heard that the Turkish military had hampered the process of accession of new members in the ranks of the group. On the contrary, we were always told that Turkey praises Daesh and actively helps it,” Amara told Sputnik Turkiye in an exclusive interview.
Kerim Amara shared important information regarding the release of 49 employees of the Turkish consulate in Mosul, who were held captive for 101 days by the Daesh militants.
In the summer of 2015, when there was a crisis with the Turkish consulate in Mosul, the Turkish media reported that 49 hostages were exchanged for 180 members of Daesh, who at that time were in Turkish prisons. At that time the Turkish leadership did not officially deny this information.
Kerim said that he was personally involved in the process of transfer and exchange of the 49 employees of the Turkish embassy, because at that time he was in Iraq. “We gave Turkey the Mosul consulate workers, and Turkey in turn gave us our people. The operation was organized by the secret services.”
According to Amara, Daesh sold oil to Turkey and Iraq and in return received food from Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
“During the clashes in Kobani our commander often visited Turkey. From there he brought food and other necessities. Some Daesh commanders were of Turkish origin,” Amara noted.
