A woman who may be Canadian is believed to have been on the front lines of Islamic State-controlled territory, giving away her locations in Syria and Iraq with every tweet.
According to a report from the , or TRAC, a woman who tweeted from Toronto up until Nov. 23, 2014 suddenly appeared in Syria. In early December, her Android phone was tracked in Raqqa, a major ISIS stronghold.
Because she didnât disable her cellphoneâs geo-tagging function, the woman revealed her location every time she tweeted. She posted pro-ISIS messages and used a photo of a beheading as her Twitter background image, according to TRAC.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based organization that tracked the womanâs tweets is called iBRABO and
iBRABO had previously tracked geotagged tweets of a suspected New Zealand jihadist who travelled to Syria to fight with ISIS.
Jeff Weyers, a senior analyst with iBRABO, said the group doesnât know for sure whether the woman tweeting from ISIS battlegrounds is Canadian. He and his fellow analysts assume sheâs Canadian because her tweets started out in Toronto.
Asked how he can be certain that the person behind the Twitter account is a woman, Weyers said the Twitter handle is a female name. He also said the tweets â the majority of them in Arabic -- are much different than those of male jihadists and ISIS supporters, who often post threatening and violent messages.
âYou donât see that with her. Itâs a much softer extremist profile,â Weyers told Âéśš´ŤĂ˝.
The TRAC report says the woman, referred to only as âL.A,â has âtravelled across more ISIS controlled territory than any other ISIS account we have monitored.â
Throughout December and January, the woman was tracked in a number of cities, including Mosul, Aleppo and Kobane, where ISIS militants were recently defeated by the Kurds.
The TRAC report says the womanâs presence on the front lines is unusual because Islamic State militants do not allow women to fight with them. Usually, women who support ISIS serve as so-called âjihadi brides,â TRAC says.
But in this case, âsheâs actively on battle lines,â said Veryan Khan, TRACâs editorial director.
âThis has never been seen before,â she told Âéśš´ŤĂ˝.
Both Weyers and Khan said it appears that the woman has some kind of a surveillance role within ISIS to help militants in their battles for strongly contested regions. Weyers said the woman has been actively tweeting from the locations of ISISâs enemies.
âIt is possible that with the severe losses ISIS was experiencing they needed the ability to gather intelligence using women, and thus allowed L.A. to penetrate into Kobane,â the TRAC report says.
The womanâs last known tweet was posted from Raqqa on Jan. 25, Weyers said. He would not say whether iBRABOâs findings have been shared with Canadian authorities.
âWe donât share with the media our involvement with intelligence agencies,â he said.
Canadian officials wonât confirm whether they are investigating the case.
Thousands of men from western countries are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside ISIS. Increasingly, intelligence services around the world and amateur groups have been tracking women and girls in ISIS-controlled territories.
Last year, two Austrian teenage girls made international headlines when they fled their middle-class homes in Vienna to join ISIS terrorists in Syria.
With a report from CTVâs Deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief Laurie Graham