ISIS killer 'Jihadi John' identified as Mohammed Emwazi, Kuwait-born Londoner from well-to-do family
- 9 years ago
The London-accented ISIS killer known as "Jihadi John," who has featured prominently in several of the group's gruesome beheading videos of Western hostages, has been identified as 27-year-old Mohammed Emwazi in a report by the Washington Post.
According to the report in the Washington Post and articles in the Guardian and the BBC, Emwazi was born in Kuwait in 1988 and emigrated to the UK when he was 6. He grew up in West London in a well-to-do family and graduated with a degree in computer science from the University of Westminster in 2009.
Friends say he started to radicalize when he attempted to travel to Tanzania in 2009 with another Briton and a man from Germany. In Tanzania, they were interrogated and denied entry. Emwazi returned home via Amsterdam, where he was questioned by Dutch and British security services. He claimed an officer from Britain's MI5 intelligence agency accused him of trying to travel to Somalia, and he was told he was on a terror watch list. MI5 also reportedly tried to recruit him as an informer.
Angered by his treatment, friends say, Emwazi decided to move to Kuwait, where he got a job at an IT company. He returned to London twice, the second time in June 2010 to prepare for a wedding to a woman had had met in Kuwait. The day before he was due to travel back to Kuwait, he was detained again. His belongings were searched, and he was fingerprinted. He was then prevented from returning to Kuwait. Emwazi was also reportedly prevented from traveling to Saudi Arabia to teach English in 2012.
He then somehow managed to travel to Syria in 2012, where he later joined ISIS. How he did this, despite being on a terror watch list, remains unclear.
Former hostages said Emwazi was part of a team that guarded Western captives at a prison in Syria in 2013, where he was seen with two other men with British accents. He was also reportedly involved in waterboarding Western captives.
A senior British security official confirmed Emwazi's identity to the New York Times. The official said the British government had already identified Emwazi but had not named him for operational reasons.
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According to the report in the Washington Post and articles in the Guardian and the BBC, Emwazi was born in Kuwait in 1988 and emigrated to the UK when he was 6. He grew up in West London in a well-to-do family and graduated with a degree in computer science from the University of Westminster in 2009.
Friends say he started to radicalize when he attempted to travel to Tanzania in 2009 with another Briton and a man from Germany. In Tanzania, they were interrogated and denied entry. Emwazi returned home via Amsterdam, where he was questioned by Dutch and British security services. He claimed an officer from Britain's MI5 intelligence agency accused him of trying to travel to Somalia, and he was told he was on a terror watch list. MI5 also reportedly tried to recruit him as an informer.
Angered by his treatment, friends say, Emwazi decided to move to Kuwait, where he got a job at an IT company. He returned to London twice, the second time in June 2010 to prepare for a wedding to a woman had had met in Kuwait. The day before he was due to travel back to Kuwait, he was detained again. His belongings were searched, and he was fingerprinted. He was then prevented from returning to Kuwait. Emwazi was also reportedly prevented from traveling to Saudi Arabia to teach English in 2012.
He then somehow managed to travel to Syria in 2012, where he later joined ISIS. How he did this, despite being on a terror watch list, remains unclear.
Former hostages said Emwazi was part of a team that guarded Western captives at a prison in Syria in 2013, where he was seen with two other men with British accents. He was also reportedly involved in waterboarding Western captives.
A senior British security official confirmed Emwazi's identity to the New York Times. The official said the British government had already identified Emwazi but had not named him for operational reasons.
-------------------------------------------------------------
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http://www.youtube.com/user/TomoNewsUS
Subscribe to stay updated on all the top stories:
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