New Zealander ISIS Fighter Accidentally Tweets Secret Location

A New Zealand man thought to have been fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) inadvertently revealed his precise location by posting geotagged tweets, a security researcher revealed.

Abu Abdul-Rahman, also known as Mark Taylor, left New Zealand to join the fight with ISIS in May 2012. Soon after, he tweeted that his mission to Syria was a “one-way trip” that featured a picture of his burned passport, the Guardian reports.

Taylor has since deleted 45 tweets after learning that they were geotagged with his precise coordinates. Security researcher Jeff Wyers, who runs an open-source intelligence group called iBrado, used the tweet geo-location information to place Taylor in a specific house in the Syrian town of al-Taqbah.

Since he first traveled to Syria, Taylor has reportedly been in touch with the New Zealand passport office to get a replacement travel document but hasn’t heard back.

[Guardian]

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