LONDON // “Jihadi John”, the masked ISIL militant blamed for beheading Western hostages, was named on Thursday as Kuwaiti-born London computer programmer Mohammed Emwazi.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at London’s King’s College, a leading resource for studying foreign militants, said they believed the identity “to be accurate and correct”, and two US government sources confirmed the same.
Cage, a civil rights group that was in contact with Emwazi for two years over his alleged harassment by British security services, said the man bore “striking similarities” to the hooded militant.
Earlier on Thursday, the Washington Post and the BBC identified Jihadi John, the nickname for a masked ISIL man shown in videos of the beheading of US and British captives, as British citizen Emwazi.
They said Emwazi was born in Kuwait, grew up in west London and studied computer programming at the University of Westminster. The university confirmed that a student of that name graduated in 2009.
The news outlets said Emwazi had been known to Britain’s intelligence services before he travelled to Syria in 2012.
Cage said that in 2010 Emwazi complained that British intelligence services were preventing him from traveling to the country of his birth, Kuwait, where he planned to marry.
No one answered the door at the brick row house in west London where the Emwazi family is alleged to have lived.
The revelation comes as activists said the number of Christians kidnapped by ISIL in northeastern Syria rose to 220, as militants rounded up more hostages from a chain of villages along a strategic river.
“No fewer than 220 Assyrian citizens were abducted by ISIL over the past three days from 11 villages” in Hasakeh province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Negotiations are under way through mediators from Arab tribes and a member of the Assyrian community to secure the release of the hostages,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.
Many of the abductees are said to be women, children or elderly.
The province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, has become the latest battleground in the fight against the militant group in Syria. It is predominantly Kurdish but also has populations of Arabs, Christian Assyrians and Armenians.
ISIL began abducting the Assyrians on Monday, when militants attacked a cluster of villages along the Khabur River, sending thousands of people fleeing to safer areas.
A US-led alliance launched fresh airstrikes on Thursday against ISIL positions in the northeastern Hasakeh province where the Christians were kidnapped, the Observatory said.
On Wednesday, the US embassy in Amman warned its citizens to avoid upscale shopping malls in the Jordanian capital, saying it had received what it called credible information that they could be targeted by militants.
The embassy said militant groups “have repeatedly expressed interest in attacking so-called soft targets, such as malls and restaurants, in Jordan”.
Jordan, together with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other countries, has stepped up its role in a US-led military campaign against ISIL militants in Syria since they burned to death a Jordanian pilot whose fighter jet was downed during a coalition bombing raid against them.
In New York, three men charged with plotting to help ISIL wage war against the US, were arrested on Wednesday. Federal officials said one of them spoke of shooting president Barack Obama or planting a bomb on Coney Island.
Akhror Saidakhmetov was arrested at Kennedy Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul on his way to Syria. Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev had a ticket to travel to Istanbul next month and was arrested in Brooklyn. The two were held without bail after a brief court appearance.
A third defendant, Abror Habibov, is accused of helping fund Saidakhmetov’s efforts to join the militant group after Saidakhmetov’s mother took away his passport to try to prevent him from travelling. Habibov was held without bail in Florida. The three are charged with attempt and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organisation. If convicted, each could face a maximum of 15 years in prison.
* Agencies
