Names of Paris attackers 'appear in IS recruitment files'

The names of three people involved in November’s deadly Paris attacks appear in files leaked from the Islamic State militant group, according to German media reports.

The three – Samy Amimour, Foued Mohamed-Aggad and Omar Ismail Mostefai - are believed to have carried out the worst attack on 13 November, at the Bataclan theatre, where 90 people were killed.

The documents were obtained by German public broadcasters WDR and NDR, and the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. WDR said that the files indicate that the three men entered IS territory in 2013 and 2014.

The files, obtained by German, UK and Syrian opposition media, are said to identify thousands of jihadist recruits from at least 40 countries.

The documents reportedly identified around 22,000 IS fighters, with one file for each recruit listing a name, address and other information. German officials have said that the files can be assumed to be genuine.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere earlier said that the information contained in the files could help in the prosecution of IS fighters and the prevention of future recruitment.

Sixteen Britons reportedly appear in the files, including Junaid Hussain and Reyaad Khan, who were killed by a RAF drone strike in Syria last September, and Kerim Marc B and Abdelkarim B, who are currently on trial separately in Germany.

Two Germans on the list, Farid Saal and Yassin Oussaiffi, have appeared in IS videos, and Dutch media identified Abu Jihad al-Hollandi from the documents as Amsterdam teenager Achraf Bouamran, who was killed in a US air strike on the Syrian IS stronghold of Raqqa in January 2015.

Sky News said that the documents originated from a man called Abu Hamed, an IS fighter who said he had become disillusioned with the group's leadership and had stolen a memory stick from the head of its internal security force before handing it over in Turkey.