If you guessed, "British taxpayers," you're on the right track.
An Islamic State terrorist who detonated a car bomb over the weekend was a British national and former Guantanamo Bay detainee, the BBC reported Tuesday. Amazingly, he was once paid over a million dollars by the British government essentially as an apology for his treatment while in custody.
Ronald Fiddler, 50, from Manchester, United Kingdom, is believed to be responsible for detonating the explosive device at an Iraqi Shiite army base in Tal Kisum, southwest of the city of Mosul. Fiddler, whose Muslim name is Abu-Zakariya al-Britani, was captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2001 before being sent to Guantanamo Bay prison in 2002. But after just two years at Guantanamo, when he had already provided useful information about the Taliban's methods, al-Britani was released back to the U.K.
The Daily Mail reported that upon his return to Britain, al-Britani received the equivalent of $1.2 million from the British government after he alleged the country didn't stand up to his perceived mistreatment while he was an inmate at Guantanamo. In exchange for the sizeable sum, the British government requested that al-Britani not tell anyone about how he was treated.
After traveling back to the U.K. from Guantanamo, al-Britani went on to fight for ISIS in Syria sometime around April 2014.
Al-Britani's wife, Shukee Begum, and their five children traveled to Syria in August 2014 to try to get her husband to return to the U.K. Al-Britani stayed, and so did Begum and their five children. But Begun insisted they only stayed in Syria for fear of being accused of supporting ISIS back in the U.K, the Daily Mirror reported.
Three years later, ISIS claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack near Mosul, which the terrorist group claimed killed several people, including al-Britani and one other ISIS terrorist. The BBC did not confirm the fatalities in its reporting, and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to TheBlaze Tuesday when asked how many people, if any, died or were injured in the car bomb attack.
At its peak, Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba housed nearly 700 inmates, according to CNN. When former President Barack Obama left office, that number had dropped to just 41 detainees. Throughout his administration, Obama argued that terrorists used the detention facility as a propaganda tool to recruit more terrorists and that it should be closed.
President Donald Trump, however, said throughout the campaign that he supported keeping Guantanamo Bay open.
