‘I don’t regret anything,’ smiling ISIS militant on death row tells Sky News
Blindfolded and under armed guard, a captured ISIS fighter is brought before us.
When the blindfold is removed, he doesn’t look surprised to see a camera crew and several counterterrorism officers, one of whom interrogated him when he was first caught.
The 24-year-old militant is on death row in Somalia awaiting execution by firing squad, having been accused of being an ISIS commander, as well as a sniper and a member of a two-man bomb squad.
We’ve been given extremely rare access to speak to him and another ISIS recruit in a secure location in Puntland, the semi-autonomous region of northern Somalia where the terror group has been seizing territory and ruling over terrified communities.
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Watch the documentary – Hunting for ISIS: A warning from Africa
US and Somali commanders say ISIS is running its global headquarters in Puntland’s caves, financing its activities worldwide.
Muthar Hamid Qaayid is from Yemen and came to Somalia via a sea route where we’ve witnessed how challenging it is to halt the flow of militant travellers.
He insists he wasn’t an active participant in the two-man bomb squad – and seems entirely unbothered about the situation he now finds himself in.
“I didn’t press the button,” he says. “I just looked. The other man made the bomb and set it off. I didn’t come here to kill Muslims.”
His partner blew himself up as he was planting the bomb in Bosaso city centre and realised he had been discovered.
Officers believe he detonated it prematurely.
The man in front of us was injured, and we are told he had incriminating bomb-making equipment with him.
I ask him if he has regrets about his involvement and joining the militant group.
“I don’t regret anything,” he says, smiling. “Even if you take me out of the room now and execute me, I don’t regret anything.” Again, another smile.
“If they shoot me or hang me, I don’t mind. In the end, I don’t care.”
Tellingly, he says his family does not like ISIS. “If they found me here, they’d be upset,” he says.
Despite persistent questions, he doesn’t shift much. “I’m not thinking,” he insists. “There’s nothing. I’m just waiting for death.”
The ISIS militant speaks to Sky’s Alex Crawford
I ask if he’d heard of people being killed by the bombs he’s accused of planting.
“Yes, but they don’t kill all people,” he insists.
But what about killing anyone, I suggest, slightly puzzled.
“They don’t kill everyone,” he continues. There’s a pause. “Only infidels”.
Infidels is a term many recruits use to describe those who simply don’t agree with their strict interpretation of Sharia – that can include Muslims as well as other religions.
Officials show us multiple foreign passports recovered from ISIS cave hideouts in Puntland and from those they’ve captured or killed.
Passports seized from ISIS hideouts and fighters
There are passports for whole families from South Africa, including children, as well as ones from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Bahrain.
There are also handfuls of IDs which show European faces.
Since a Puntland army offensive was launched last December, just five of the 600 ISIS fighters killed have been Somalis, says Mohamed Abdirahman Dhabancad, Puntland’s political affairs representative.
‘The main target was to rule the world’
The second prisoner brought before us is from Morocco and is much more talkative.
Usman Bukukar Bin Fuad insists he was duped by ISIS and says he only travelled to Somalia because he’d heard he could make money.
Usman Bukukar Bin Fuad claims he only dug caves for ISIS
“Instead, I ended up digging caves,” he says. “It was difficult to escape but when they told me to put on a suicide vest to kill Puntland forces, I said this is not what you told me I would be doing – and I escaped.”
He says he was given a weapon but never used it – a claim not believed by his captors.
“I never joined any fight,” he insists. “I had my weapon [AK47] but I just did normal duties taking supplies from location to location and following orders.”
He says he met the ISIS leader in Somalia, Abdul Qadir Mumin, several times.
“He used to visit all the ISIS camps and encourage them to fight.”
“And he’d reassure us all about going to heaven,” he adds.
It seems to lend credence to the belief that Mumin is still alive and operating – up until a few months ago anyway.
He says he was given training in sniping (which he didn’t finish) and map reading, which was interrupted when the Puntland military offensive began.
He says he travelled over from Ethiopia with six Moroccans, before meeting an Algerian recruit.
Fellow militants in the ISIS mountain stronghold were from countries including Tunisia, Libya, Tanzania, Kenya, Turkey, Argentina, Bangladesh, Sweden, and Iraq.
“The main target or focus was to rule the world,” he says. “Starting with this region as one of the gates to the world, then Ethiopia and the rest of the world.
“I heard so much talk about sending ISIS fighters to Bosaso, Ethiopia or Yemen. Sending people to other parts of the world and ruling the world was all part of the plan.”
The captives’ information has added to the belief that Puntland and Somalia is just the tip of a huge ISIS problem which is spreading and is able to cause terror in a range of ways.
Alex Crawford reports from Somalia with specialist producer Chris Cunningham and camera operator Richie Mockler. Photography by Chris Cunningham
The sole surviving guest of a lunch where three others died after being served food laced with toxic mushrooms has told an Australian court that the actions of murderer Erin Patterson have left him feeling “half alive”.
Ian Wilkinson, who received a liver transplant and spent months in hospital after the poisoning in July 2023, described how he had been left traumatised as he delivered his victim impact statement at Patterson’s pre-sentencing hearing in Melbourne.
Patterson, 50, was found guilty last month of luring her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, to lunch at her home in Leongatha and poisoning them with individual portions of Beef Wellington that contained toxic death cap mushrooms.
A jury also found her guilty of the attempted murder of Mr Wilkinson, Heather’s husband.
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Australian mother found guilty of killing three relatives by serving toxic lunch
Speaking at the start of the two-day hearing, Mr Wilkinson, a Baptist pastor, said the death of his wife had left him bereft.
“It’s a truly horrible thought to live with that somebody could decide to take her life. I only feel half alive without her,” he said, breaking down in tears.
“It’s one of the distressing shortcomings of our society that so much attention is showered on those who do evil and so little on those who do good.”
Ian and Heather Wilkinson. Pic: The Salvation Army Australia – Museum
‘I bear her no ill will’
He described Gail and Don Patterson, the parents of Erin Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson, as the closest people to him after his wife and family.
“My life is greatly impoverished without them,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“I’m distressed that Erin has acted with callous and calculated disregard for my life and the lives of those I love. What foolishness possesses a person to think that murder could be the solution to their problems, especially the murder of people who have only good intentions towards her?”
Pic: AP
He called on Patterson, who said the poisonings were accidental and continues to maintain her innocence, to confess to her crimes.
“I encourage Erin to receive my offer of forgiveness for those harms done to me with full confession and repentance. I bear her no ill will,” he said.
“I am no longer Erin Patterson’s victim and she has become the victim of my kindness.”
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The court received a total of 28 victim impact statements, of which seven were read publicly.
Don and Gail Patterson. Picture: Facebook
‘An irreparably broken home’
Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson – who was invited to the lunch but declined – spoke of the devastating impact on the couple’s two children.
“The grim reality is they live in an irreparably broken home with only a solo parent, when almost everyone else knows their mother murdered their grandparents,” he said in a statement that was read out on his behalf.
Patterson attended the court in person on Monday rather than watch via a video link from prison which she did during a hearing earlier this month.
The hearing is scheduled to continue on Tuesday.
Patterson faces a potential life sentence for each of the murders and 25 years for attempted murder.
She has 28 days from the day of her sentencing to appeal, but has not yet indicated whether she will do so.
Israel pounded the outskirts of Gaza City overnight, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s government vowed to press on with a planned offensive on the city.
Families streamed out of the city as the explosions hit.
“I stopped counting the times I had to take my wife and three daughters and leave my home in Gaza City,” said Mohammad, 40.
“No place is safe, but I can’t take the risk. If they suddenly begin the invasion, they will use heavy fire.”
Mahmoud Abedrabo mourns over the body of his son Hamada in Gaza City on 24 August. Pic: Reuters
Others said they would prefer to die and not leave.
“We are not leaving, let them bomb us at home,” said Aya, 31, who has a family of eight, adding that they couldn’t afford to buy a tent or pay for the transportation.
“We are hungry, afraid and don’t have money,” she said.
Mourners pray next to the body of Palestinian boy Hamada Abedrabo on 24 August. Pic: Reuters
Witnesses said that overnight they heard nonstop explosions in Zeitoun and Shejaia.
Tanks shelled houses and roads in Sabra, and buildings were blown up in Jabalia.
On Sunday, the IDF said its forces had returned to combat in Jabalia to strengthen its control of the area and dismantle militant tunnels.
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
It added that the operation there “enables the expansion of combat into additional areas and prevents Hamas terrorists from returning to operate in these areas.”
This month, Israel approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City. The offensive isn’t expected to start for another few weeks.
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In the meantime, mediators in Egypt and Qatar are trying to resume ceasefire talks between the two sides.
On Friday, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said that Gaza City will be razed unless Hamas releases all its remaining hostages and ends the war on Israel’s terms.
Mourners transport the body of Ahmed Balata on 24 August. Pic: Reuters
Around half of Gaza’s two million residents currently live in the city and on Friday a global hunger monitor said that Gaza City and its surrounding areas are officially suffering from famine that will likely spread.
Israel said the monitor ignores steps Israel has taken since late July to increase aid supplies into and across Gaza.
Eight more people died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry on Saturday.
281 people, including 114 children, have now died of malnutrition and starvation since the war started, according to the ministry.
The war began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel, mainly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
Since then, Israel has killed at least 62,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and internally displaced nearly its entire population.
Two married couples have died after a British car veered off the road and crashed in Germany, according to police.
The fatal accident happened shortly after midnight on Saturday in the trees near a highway in the Kassel district, north of Hesse in central Germany.
The 32-year-old male driver, a 31-year-old female passenger, a 32-year-old female passenger, and a 30-year-old female passenger all died at the scene, despite the efforts of German emergency services.
Sky News understands UK officials have not been contacted for assistance.
At roughly 12.30am on Saturday, the car appears to have veered off the road and crashed into nearby trees around 30m from the road, according to the Kassel police department.
Pic: Feuerwehr Reinhardshagen
One of the victim’s phones automatically alerted the emergency services to the incident, who sent an ambulance to the scene.
Soon, fire engines, ambulances, command vehicles and emergency support vehicles were all dispatched.
When emergency workers arrived, the car was lying on its side, wedged between several trees.
It wasn’t until they removed the roof that they found all four passengers.
Pic: Feuerwehr Reinhardshagen
The accident happened on Highway L3229
The emergency workers who dealt with the victims were immediately supported by the specialist mental health workers at the fire station in Reinhardshagen.
“This high number of deaths is an extraordinary operation for our Reinhardshagen Volunteer Fire Department,” said a fire department spokesperson.
“For some of the emergency personnel, it is the first time they have been confronted with death in this way.
“Therefore, a great deal is being done to help us process these images. We will also discuss this among ourselves and within families, because not everyone can easily shake off what they have seen.”
An investigation into the accident is ongoing and is being conducted by the Hofgeismar police station.
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