Last month, an audio recording appeared on YouTube purporting to be the voice of a Jordanian militant who’d just defected from Daesh.
In the 17-minute recording published on May 31, the militant identifies himself as Jordanian Abu al-Waleed al-Maqdisi and says he was part of al-Qaeda's Syria wing Jabhat al-Nusra before joining Daesh. Once with the group, he says he was appointed as a senior judge, or emir, in Syria’s Qalamoun region.
Split across the Syria-Lebanon border, the Qalamoun mountains saw fierce clashes in May between pro-government forces and a wide net of opposition and Islamist groups that included Daesh.
During these clashes, al-Maqdisi claims "mass corruption" within the group became evident. Here's the jist.
1. Al-Maqdisi says leadership in the region was shortchanging fighters by requesting salaries for 250 militants when there were only 85.
2. Organizationally, he says there's no "mechanism for joining," which has allowed unrelated individuals to claim attacks in Daesh's name.
3. He described Daesh leadership in Qalamoun as being riddled with "spies," and blames them for the apparent heavy losses they incurred. Though it's not clear what he means by "spies."
Al Bawaba cannot independently confirm its authenticity, but you can hear the Arabic recording below.
