Wellington, Dec 31 (IANS) A jihadi from New Zealand who has links with the Al Qaeda and has taken up arms in Syria, mistakenly broadcasted his exact location after forgetting to turn off a tracking function on his phone, media reported Wednesday.
Mohammad Daniel, alias Abu Abdul Rahman, formerly known as Mark John Taylor, has now deleted 45 posts from his Twitter account after finding that he had been revealing his location to intelligence agencies and others keeping tabs on him, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Experts say such information is invaluable in helping investigators establish links that foreign fighters have with terrorist groups.
Daniel's mistake was spotted by Canada-based open source intelligence research group iBRABO.
Daniel's tweets apparently show that in October this year he was with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Kafar Roma, an area that President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian army has previously confirmed had been occupied by pockets of foreign fighters from IS.
His tweets stopped around the time that the Syrian army made a strong push into the area.
He then went off the grid for several months while fighting in the desert and finally retreated to the IS stronghold of Al Tabqah in early December.
Daniel sent several tweets from Al Tabqah which allowed iBRABO to pinpoint a specific house in the southwest of Al Tabqah that he had "predominantly used" Dec 3-10.
A recent photo update that shows the face of another IS fighter revealed Daniel again on the move.
In September, Daniel claimed to have been in touch with the New Zealand government in a bid to get a new passport after burning his last one.
Daniel left New Zealand again in May 2012 and worked in Indonesia for two years as an English teacher.
In June this year, he entered Syria across the Turkish border "as a soldier for Allah".
Mohammad Daniel, alias Abu Abdul Rahman, formerly known as Mark John Taylor, has now deleted 45 posts from his Twitter account after finding that he had been revealing his location to intelligence agencies and others keeping tabs on him, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Experts say such information is invaluable in helping investigators establish links that foreign fighters have with terrorist groups.
Daniel's mistake was spotted by Canada-based open source intelligence research group iBRABO.
Daniel's tweets apparently show that in October this year he was with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Kafar Roma, an area that President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian army has previously confirmed had been occupied by pockets of foreign fighters from IS.
His tweets stopped around the time that the Syrian army made a strong push into the area.
He then went off the grid for several months while fighting in the desert and finally retreated to the IS stronghold of Al Tabqah in early December.
Daniel sent several tweets from Al Tabqah which allowed iBRABO to pinpoint a specific house in the southwest of Al Tabqah that he had "predominantly used" Dec 3-10.
A recent photo update that shows the face of another IS fighter revealed Daniel again on the move.
In September, Daniel claimed to have been in touch with the New Zealand government in a bid to get a new passport after burning his last one.
Daniel left New Zealand again in May 2012 and worked in Indonesia for two years as an English teacher.
In June this year, he entered Syria across the Turkish border "as a soldier for Allah".
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