‘Jihadi John’ said to be London grad
“Jihadi John”, the masked Islamic State group militant believed responsible for beheading at least five Western hostages, has been named as Kuwaiti-born computing graduate Mohammed Emwazi from London.
“Jihadi John” is believed to be responsible for the murders of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig.
He also appeared in a video with Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto shortly before they were killed.
Families of the murdered hostages said they looked forward to seeing Emwazi brought to justice.
The family of Sotloff said they hoped establishing the identity of the killer would bring him closer to justice.
“The Sotloff family was informed of John’s identity. This is one step on a long road to bringing him to justice,” said Barak Barfi, the Sotloff family’s spokesman, in a statement.
In the videos posted online, “Jihadi John” appears dressed all in black with only his eyes exposed, brandishing a knife while launching tirades against the West.
A Washington Post report citing friends, a leading think tank researching foreign jihadists and a British security official quoted by The New York Times identified Emwazi as the executioner.
However, London’s Metropolitan Police dismissed the reports as “speculation” and said it was “not going to confirm his identity” to protect human lives while the US National Security Council said it would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College, London, said it believed the identity “to be accurate and correct”.
“We’re pretty confident that the right individual has been named,” Shiraz Maher, a researcher at the center, said.
Cage, a civil rights group that was in contact with Emwazi for several years over his alleged harassment by British security services, said that while not 100 percent certain, it believed it was him.
Emwazi, said by Cage to be 26, was identified to The Washington Post by friends and others familiar with the case, with one acquaintance telling the paper: “I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John.”
Emwazi is from a middle class family and earned a degree in computer programming. He is described as being quiet and polite with a stylish dress sense.