islamic state Islamic State poses as dead journalist to entrap Facebook friends

[Reefa]

Ruqia Hassan Mohammed may have been dead for three months.

 

ISLAMIC State jihadists posed as a dead journalist to lure her Facebook friends and colleagues into a trap, colleagues of the fearless terror critic say.

 

The capture and execution of citizen journalist Ruqia Hassan Mohammed, who was working on behalf of IS resistance movement Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered (RBSS) inside Syria, was reported this week.

 

But in a disturbing new twist, the anti-terror group says Ms Mohammed, 30, has likely been dead for three months and her social media accounts hijacked by IS, which kept up the pretence that she was still alive to chat with her friends.

 

A fellow RBSS activist told The Independent Ms Mohammed’s Facebook and Twitter accounts were being used by the terror group as recently as last week to lure other critics.

 

“Her Facebook account remained open in order to entrap friends who communicated with her,” the man, known only as Tim Ramadan in order to protect his identity,” told the newspaper.

 

Ms Mohammed’s presence on social media stopped very suddenly in July, with one of her final posts joking, “Go ahead and cut off our internet, our messenger pigeons won’t complain,” which she wrote in response to IS banning Wi-Fi hot spots in Raqqa, Islamic State’s defacto capital.

 

Ms Mohammed remained in Raqqa during the occupation and worked secretly to document what was going on under IS rule.

 

Her death was confirmed on Twitter by the RBSS group, who work to expose the abuse of human rights within Syria. RBSS have also recently dealt with three of their own members being killed by IS between October and December.

 

IS enforces brutal zero-tolerance towards citizens that criticise them. Ms Mohammed was a brave but rare voice, who became known for her dry sense of humour and fearless attitude.

 

It is believed she was captured as far back as July and executed in about September.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/islamic-state-poses-as-dead-journalist-to-entrap-facebook-friends/news-story/75d4b8ef1e02d1047d88014482ca25df