Relaxing in his lair, Jihadi John and the Britons of IS
FOOTAGE showing Islamic State executioner Jihadi John joking with fellow British extremists has been revealed for the first time.
Video smuggled out of IS stronghold Raqqa this week showed Mohammed Emwazi – who beheaded five Western hostages – chatting with three other Britons in a cafe reputedly used as the group’s nerve centre.
Among them is Raymond Matimba, who is said to have helped radicalise Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi and is now the most wanted British terrorist in the world.
The source who smuggled the 2014 footage claimed 28-year-old Matimba, who is said to have been placed in charge of sniper training by IS, had urged the terror group to attack his home city of Manchester
Matimba was stopped by counter-not terrorism police at Manchester Airport in April 2014 as he attempted to travel to Syria but was unwittingly allowed on his way, according to court documents. Three months earlier he had taken part in a combat game session in apparent preparation for travelling to join IS in order to ‘fight for what I believe in’.
He and a fellow convert were questioned while trying to catch a flight to Barcelona. Matimba was carrying more than £1,000 in cash, but insisted it was money saved from work and that they were going for a week’s holiday in Spain, and the pair were allowed on their way.
However they instead travelled to Rome before flying to Istanbul, from where Matimba crossed into Syria.
Since the footage was taken,
‘He hated his city’
Emwazi – one of a quartet of IS jailers dubbed ‘The Beatles’ by captives – Reyaad Khan and Junaid Hussain have been killed in drone strikes.
But while some reports claimed Matimba – who took the name Abu Qaqa al-Britani al-Afro – was also killed earlier this year, his family have heard nothing. The video smuggled out of Raqqa and obtained by the Daily Telegraph this week shows him relaxing in a cafe with Emwazi, Khan and Hussain.
The source told the paper that Matimba had urged IS to attack Manchester, saying ‘he hated his city, that he wanted it to be bombed’. They claimed he had also been in conversation with Abedi in the run-up to his deadly attack earlier this year. Matimba’s mother said she does know if he is dead or alive and had changed her number to stop him contacting her.
Commenting on how Matimba slipped the net, Chris Phillips, the former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said: ‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But it’s almost impossible to stop this happening – think how many people go on holiday to Barcelona, many of them carrying hundreds of pounds in cash.’ greater Manchester Police said it did not comment on individuals believed to have travelled to Syria.