Driver's licence links 'Islamic State fighter' to SA

23 November 2015 - 02:10 By Nivashni Nair

The Home Affairs Department yesterday verified that the South African driver's licence found on a suspected Islamic State fighter in Iraq is legitimate. "We verified the licence and the identity of the owner but we will communicate when the time is right," departmental spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said."It is too early for us to provide more information."The Durban family of 44-year-old Aqeel Abdul-Haq Kloberie learnt via a tweet that their son's driver's licence was found on a "terrorist" killed a few days ago in a blast in Iraq.The man, who converted from Christianity to Islam in 1991, told his family he had a contract job in Bahrain when he left South Africa in March.Martin Ewi, a transnational threats and international crime senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies, said the rough estimate of South Africans recruited into IS ranged from 150 to 300."The problem with the South African figure is that those that go are so secretive about it and the state has also not been very open, so this makes it extremely difficult to have an accurate account as we have in Europe where the countries have been doing intelligence and investigations into how many Europeans have been recruited," he said...

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