Identity of IS militant 'Jihadi John' revealed
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 27, 2015
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A file image grab taken from a video released by the Islamic State (IS) and identified by SITE Intelligence Group on September 2, 2014 purportedly shows a masked militant holding a knife and gesturing as he speaks to the camera in a desert landscape before beheading 31-year-old US freelance writer Steven Sotloff. "Jihadi John", the masked Islamic State militant apparently responsible for the beheading of western hostages including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, was on February 26, 2015 named as London man Mohammed Emwazi by the Washington Post and the BBC. [Photo/ CFP] |
The "Jihadi John," a black-clad English-speaking militant who has featured in several Islamic State beheading videos, is identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a middle-class Briton born in Kuwait, the Washington Post said.
The newspaper disclosed Thursday that the man is a computer-programming graduate who came from a well-to-do family in West London. He was believed to have traveled to Syria around 2012 to joined the IS during the group's infancy.
He gained the moniker of "Jihadi John" after appearing in a video about beheading of American journalist James Foley last August. He has also appeared in other videos documenting the appalling beheadings of IS hostages, some of whom he had personally executed.
In each beheading video, he is dressed entirely in black, a balaclava covering all but his eyes and the ridge of his nose. He wears a holster under his left arm.
In last September, one month after Foley's execution, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials said they succeeded in identifying who "Jihadi John" was. The agency, however, has kept his identity in secrecy.
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