Identities of 22,000 Islamic State militants revealed by British media

London, March 10: Britain's Sky News on Wednesday reported that it had obtained tens of thousands of documents, containing 22,000 names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of Islamic State (IS) militants.

Nationals from at least 51 countries, including Britain, had to give up their most personal information as they joined the organisation, according to the media report by Sky News.

The documents reveal the identities of a number of previously unknown jihadists in Britain, across northern Europe, much of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in the US and Canada, according to the report.

One of the files marked "Martyrs" detailed a brigade manned entirely by fighters who wanted to carry out suicide attacks and were trained to do so, the report said, according to Xinhua.

Some of the telephone numbers on the list are still active and it is believed that although many will be family members, a significant number of them are used by the jihadis themselves, according to the report.

Sky News said the files were passed to it on a memory stick stolen from the head of IS internal security police.

IANS