The names, addresses and phone numbers of 22,000 Islamic State recruits have been handed over by a disillusioned member of the organisation.

Tens of thousands of documents containing those details and further family contacts of jihadis who joined the Islamic State group were handed over to the UK's Sky News, the broadcaster said.

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Tens of thousands of documents containing those details and further family contacts of jihadis who joined the Islamic State group were handed over to the UK's Sky News, the broadcaster said. Photo: Sky News UK





Sky reported that a disillusioned former member had handed over the documents on a memory stick that had been stolen from the head of the group's internal security police.

The documents are forms that IS recruits had to fill out in order to be accepted into the organisation, and contain information on nationals from 51 countries, the broadcaster reported.

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The names, addresses and phone numbers of 22,000 Islamic State recruits have been handed over by a disillusioned member of the organisation. Photo: Sky News UK

"Sky News has informed the authorities about the haul," the news channel wrote on its website.

No comment was immediately available from Britain's interior or foreign ministries.

Some of the documents reportedly contain the information of previously unknown jihadis in northern Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as North Africa and the Middle East, it said.

"This could be a massive development," Chris Phillips, managing director of counter terrorism consultancy International Protect and Prepare Security Office, told AFP.

"It shows how ISIS is vulnerable to its own people turning against them... The potential for security services identifying unknown terrorists is greatly enhanced," he said, using another term for IS.

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