Jihadi John
Mohammed Emwazi was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin seen in several videos produced by the Islamist extremist group Islamic State showing the beheadings of a number of captives in 2014 and 2015. A group of his hostages nicknamed him "John" since he was part of a four-person terrorist cell with English accents whom they called 'The Beatles'; the press later began calling him "Jihadi John".
On 12 November 2015, US officials reported that he had been hit by a drone strike in Raqqa, Syria. His death was confirmed by IS in January 2016.
Early life
Emwazi was born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri on 17 August 1988 in Kuwait as the eldest of five children to Jassem and Ghaneyah Emwazi. The family, who were Bidoon of Iraqi origin, lived in the Taima area of the town of Al Jahra, which was known as a "slumtown" where stateless people were ghettoized by the Kuwaiti government. They were undocumented, considered stateless and without Kuwaiti citizenship status. The family moved to the United Kingdom in 1994 when he was six. They settled in inner west London, moving between several properties in Maida Vale, including subsidised accommodation, later living in St John's Wood and finally in Queen's Park. Emwazi attended St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school, and later Quintin Kynaston School. According to his former headteacher, Emwazi experienced some bullying at school.In 2006, he went to the University of Westminster, studying Information Systems with Business Management. He secured a lower second-class Bachelor of Science honours degree on graduation three years later. At age 21, he worked as a salesman at an IT company in Kuwait and was considered by his boss as the best employee the company ever had.
At some point he became a British citizen. After he was granted UK citizenship, he started travelling back to Kuwait, as did his father.
Emwazi was known to MI5 years prior to his sightings in IS execution videos, having initially been suspected of having links to Al-Shabaab, and was repeatedly prevented from travelling back to Kuwait. The case prompted former British shadow home secretary David Davis to criticise the approach of UK intelligence services, noting "the numbers who appear to have 'slipped through the net.
Nicknames
Emwazi was given the nickname "John" by a group of his hostages. The hostages said that he guarded Western hostages while handling communications with their families, and was part of a terrorist cell they called 'The Beatles' because the cell members all had British accents. The nickname refers to John Lennon of the Beatles; the three other group members were each given the first name of one of the other Beatles.The nicknames "Jihadi John", "Jailer John" and "John the Beatle" were created by journalists. "Jihadi John" was used on 20 August 2014 in the conservative magazine The Spectator in a piece titled "Jihadi John – a very British export" by Douglas Murray, a frequent critic of Islam, and soon after joined by the BBC and other sources.
Victims
The following are reported victims of Jihadi John:James Foley
In a video uploaded to YouTube on 19 August 2014, Foley read a prepared statement criticising the United States, the recent airstrikes in Iraq, and his brother who serves in the US Air Force. Emwazi, wearing a mask, also read a prepared statement in which he criticised the US and Barack Obama and made demands to cease the 2014 American-led intervention in Iraq. The masked man then beheaded Foley off-camera, after which he threatened to behead Steven Sotloff if his demands were not met. The FBI and US National Security Council confirmed that the video, which included footage of Foley's beheaded corpse, was genuine.Steven Sotloff
On 2 September 2014, a video was released reportedly showing American journalist Steven Sotloff's beheading by Emwazi. The White House confirmed the video's authenticity.David Haines
On 13 September 2014, a video, directed at British Prime Minister David Cameron, was released, showing British hostage aid worker David Haines being beheaded by Emwazi.Alan Henning
On 3 October 2014, a video released by IS showed Emwazi beheading British aid worker Alan Henning. Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, Greater Manchester, had volunteered to deliver aid to Syria. He was kidnapped in Al-Dana, an area held then by IS, on 27 December 2013.Peter Kassig
On 16 November 2014 a video was posted by IS of Emwazi standing over a severed head, which the White House confirmed was that of Peter Kassig. Kassig's beheading was not shown, and unlike earlier hostage beheading videos he did not make a statement. There has been speculation that, faced with the prospect of being beheaded, he may have resisted and been shot dead: a surgeon performed a detailed examination of the video and noted possible evidence of a gunshot wound.Syrian soldiers
The video that ended with a shot of Kassig's severed head showed the beheadings of a number of Syrian soldiers in gruesome detail, by a group led by a masked Emwazi. It was said by the BBC that, unlike previous videos, this one shows the faces of many of the militants, indicates the location as being Dabiq in Aleppo Province, and that this video "revels in gore." Unlike previous videos that cut away without showing the killing, Emwazi is shown beheading a victim. Initially, the number killed was variously reported as at least 12, or 18. Subsequent analysis by the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium and UK-based counter-extremism think tank Quilliam concluded that 22 captive soldiers were executed.Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto
Haruna Yukawa, age 42, was captured sometime before August 2014. Kenji Goto, age 47, was captured sometime in October 2014 while trying to rescue Yukawa. In January 2015, a threat was issued that they would be killed unless the Japanese government paid a ransom of. Yukawa was beheaded on 24 January, and Goto on 31 January 2015.Analysis of videos
Officially the FBI and US National Security Council confirmed that the James Foley video, which ended with footage of a beheaded corpse, was genuine. David Cameron and the British Foreign Office also confirmed the authenticity of the video showing the death of David Haines.An unnamed forensics expert commissioned by The Times to look at the James Foley video said, "I think it has been staged. My feeling is that the murder may have happened after the camera was stopped." The Times concluded that "No one is questioning that the photojournalist James Foley was beheaded, but camera trickery and slick post-production techniques appear to have been used." Two unnamed video specialists in the International Business Times of Australia claimed that portions of the video appeared to be staged and edited. James Alvarez, a British-American hostage negotiator, also claimed the James Foley video was "expertly staged", with the use of two separate cameras and a clip-on microphone attached to Foley's orange jumpsuit. Jeff Smith, associate director of the CU Denver National Center for Media Forensics in the US, said "What's most interesting is that the actual beheading that takes place in the videos, both of them are staged."
British analyst Eliot Higgins published photographic and video forensic evidence suggesting that the James Foley video was taken at a spot in the hills south of the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Identification and manhunt
Search for identity and early speculation
"Jihadi John" became the subject of a manhunt by the FBI, MI5, and Scotland Yard. In his videos, "Jihadi John" concealed his identity by covering himself from head to toe in black, except for tan desert boots, with a mask that left only his eyes visible. Despite this, several facts about "Jihadi John" could be ascertained from both videos. He spoke with an apparent London or southern England accent. In both videos, he was seen to sport a pistol in a leather shoulder holster under his left shoulder, typical of right-handed people, but his actions in the videos suggest he is left-handed.Other factors that could have led to his identification were his height, general physique, the pattern of veins on the back of his hands, his voice and clothes. A team of analysts might use the topography of the landscape in the video in an attempt to identify the location. On 24 August 2014, the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Peter Westmacott, said that Britain was very close to identifying "Jihadi John" using sophisticated voice recognition technology, but when pressed, refused to disclose any other details.
On 20 September 2014, the United States Senate approved a reward for information that led to the capture of anyone involved in the murders of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Cawthorne Haines. On 20 November, the bill, extending the potential scope of the reward program to any American kidnapped and murdered by a "foreign terrorist organization" and limiting the reward to a maximum of, was referred to the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
On 14 September British Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that the identity of "Jihadi John" was known but had yet to be revealed.
On 25 September, FBI Director James Comey told reporters that they had identified the suspect, but did not give information regarding the man's identity or nationality. "I believe that we have identified him. I'm not going to tell you who I believe it is," Comey stated. Michael Ryan, an author and scholar from the Middle East Institute speculated, "maybe 98 percent or 95 percent sure is not sure enough to put a man's name out."
In August 2014, The Sunday Times reported that Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 23, a hip-hop musician from West London, had "emerged as a key suspect" in the investigation. Other sources also stated that Abu Hussain Al-Britani, 20, a computer hacker from Birmingham, and Abu Abdullah al-Britani, in his 20s from Portsmouth, were suspects.