Jihadi John ‘played dumb to dupe MI5 and escape to Syria’

JIHADI John tricked MI5 and slipped out of Britain to join Islamic State by playing dumb, the terror group’s magazine claimed yesterday.

Over a two-page tribute in online publication Dabiq, Mohammed Emwazi – known as Jihadi John – is praised for sharing a sex slave with a fellow fighter, and for taking the son of a ‘martyr’ to the zoo.

The article also says the terrorist, who was 27 when he died, started plans to join the ‘holy war’ at the ‘time of the blessed raids that rocked London in 2005’ – which seems to contradict the suggestion by controversial charity Cage that it was MI5 surveillance that radicalised him in the first place.

Security services then ‘started vigorously targeting him’ and imposed a travel ban, but ‘in interrogations he would present himself as unintelligent’, it says, and ultimately gave them the slip. The article claims: ‘Under the nose of the much-overrated MI5 he carefully and secretly departed.’

It says he managed to sneak across European borders despite twice being arrested – raising fresh questions about the EU’s open-border policy. And in Syria he appeared in IS videos, beheading hostages including Britons David Haines, an aid worker, and Alan Henning, a taxi driver. The tribute confirmed that he had been assassinated by an American drone in November.

Islamic State is planning to halve the salaries of its jihadi fighters.

The terrorists typically get £270 a month – but US drone attacks have been cutting Islamists’ income from oil wells. IS declared: ‘Because of exceptional circumstances, mujahideens’ salaries will be cut in half. No one will be exempt from this.’