North-Press Agency
Al-Hasakah – Northeastern Syria
“I’ve never been with the idea of jihad, I came to Syria to help the Muslims against Bashar Assad’s injustice to his people.”
With these words, the Caribbean young man of Jordanian origins “Ziad Nassef Mohammed”, spoke about his journey to Syria and his involvement in the ranks of the Islamic State (ISIS).
Ziad Mohammed, a 29-year-old man from a Caribbean island east of Central America, Trinidad and Tobago, has studied mechanical engineering for two and a half years, from a Jordanian father and a Canadian mother.
The young man is currently in a detention center by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, after he surrendered himself last March, in the last stronghold of ISIS in the town of al-Baghuz, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ez-Zur.
The beginning of extremism
Mohammed got married for 5 times, four times in Syria, as he said, and like thousands of ISIS detainees, Muhammad denies participating in any combat operations with the Islamic State, except in helping them to fix and maintain their machinery and vehicles for four years inside Syria.
The South American man told North-Press that he came to Syria with ignorance and unawareness, he was working in a car maintenance shop, before being seduced by his older brother, who was later killed in Syria, whom he was always talking about jihad.
“I’ve never been with the idea of jihad, but I have come to Syria to help the Muslims against Bashar Assad’s injustice to his people.”
Before leaving the far Caribbean island to Syria, Ziyad Mohammed was married and had a child, and he was just preparing to build a house, earlier he’d a traffic accident that made him in bed for about five months, to think clearly about “the mistakes he did in his life before receiving an invitation for God’s sake,” as he said.
“After that, I started worshipping and I prayed to God to help me, so I did not go to the shop so much until I closed it, in the last days of Ramadan before coming to Syria, I stayed in the mosque for five days doing the duties of worship, then my brother came to me and said, I am leaving for Syria, I asked him why we just don’t go to Saudi Arabia, it’s the Muslims’ destination.”
His brother replied, “We do not have many chances in the jihad there.”
I told my brother “what I could do to help the Muslims,” he said, “You can help them in fixing vehicles and doing maintenance work.”
Mohammed says that his wife refused to come to Syria, which that obliged him to travel without informing her, claiming that it was the most difficult moment in his life to leave his child and his wife and come to Syria.
From Manbij to Raqqa
Mohammed explained that he’d entered Syria through Turkey, indicating that he first came to Istanbul before going to Gaziantep, then to enter Syrian territories, specifically from the border town of Jarabulus in the northern Aleppo countryside with the help of an ISIS member, noting that he did not realize that he was in Syria only after 10 minutes.
He continued, “After I underwent a military training camp, and when they asked me about the possibilities I could help them with, I said I was a mechanic, then they told me, you have to be stationed against the Nusairis (referring to the Alawite sect of Syria’s president Bashar) al-Assad, and the Sahwat (referring to other Islamist groups), in the town of Akhtarin northern Aleppo,” then “they took the information about me and moved me to the place of maintaining vehicles in the city of Al-Bab, until that time there were no experienced mechanics in the ranks of ISIS.”
Mohammed says that during his stay in Al-Bab, northeastern Aleppo, he got married to a British woman, before leaving the area because of the advance of the Syrian government forces in the area of Kueres in Aleppo countryside, heading towards the city of Manbij, northeastern Aleppo.
“In Manbij, I tried to leave the maintenance work, but they refused, and then one of the brothers (other ISIS member) came to me and allowed me to go to Raqqa to complete my work there, but I wanted to leave the car examination field and move to the work of basic maintenance, then I left the job because it was no longer appropriate, which created many problems between me and my “Amir”, so I was punished and put in jail for about a month.
Disorder inside the ranks of the group
Mohammed says that after his release, he returned to work as a mechanic, noting that the situation was suspicious and chaotic among the members of the ISIS due to the advance of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the northern front and the control over Tal-Abyad, and the Syrian government forces advance in the southern front and the approaching towards southern outskirts of Al-Tabqah.
He added; “I tried to leave Raqqa and go to Tal-Abyad to go back to my country, but I couldn’t reach Tal-Abyad where I was arrested again by ISIS, and I was detained for a month this time, but that didn’t change me so much, and the love for “Dawla” (referring to the Islamic State) remained inside of my heart.”
Muhammad asserts that in prison, he was punished and investigated on the basis of being a spy, in coincidence with the intensification of the battles, which created a disturbance and disorder inside the terrorist group, ISIS Amir subsequently forgave him and released him.
As with the Syrian Democratic Forces advancement and the control over ISIS territories, the last group of ISIS militants and their families were trapped in small strongholds in the east of the Euphrates river in Deir ez-Zur, eventually to surrender himself in al-Baghuz to the US-backed SDF.
Married four times in Syria
During his stay in Syria, Ziad Mohammed got married four times of wives of different nationalities (Britain – Maldives and two women from Russia).
Mohammed says three of his wives were killed in the fighting, one was killed in the village of al-Marashidah, the other two were killed in al-Baghuz, on the banks of the Euphrates river, eastern Deir ez-Zur governorate, he also notes that three of his children were also killed in al-Baghuz during the mutual shelling between ISIS and SDF.
Mohammed adds that he’d divorced his former Canadian wife, while his remaining wife, who has the Russian citizenship with a number of his children, is currently staying a camp in northern Syria.
During the battles in al-Baghuz, Mohammed was wounded by shrapnel in his kidney and back, while now he continues to be treated. According to the detention’s administration official, they closely monitor and take care of the wounded ISIS members, asserting that they are transporting patients with serious illnesses or those who require special treatment to the hospitals.
Denial
Mohamed claims that for more than four years in the ranks of ISIS, he never killed any person, and he didn’t participate in any battles, his only task was to maintain the machinery, according to him.
Unrepentant
The Trinidad and Tobago citizen, states that he’s not very regretful about his journey to Syria, justifying this by saying, “Syria is better than Trinidad because it does not have such obscene acts as homosexuality and alcohol.” He concludes by saying that all he wants now is to know what happened to his wife and children and to be reassured about their situation, he points out that he has no difference if he is sentenced in Syria or in his country, in both cases he is just a detainee.
The Global Coalition backed Syrian Democratic Forces, have arrested thousands of the group’s members, either during the battles against the extremist group, or who have surrendered themselves in their last stronghold in al-Baghuz, eastern Deir ez-Zur.
The US-backed multi-ethnic SDF called on the international community to establish an international tribunal for the members of the Islamic State group on the ground in northeastern Syria.