British PM vows to hunt down ‘Jihadi John’

London, February 27

British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed on Friday to use all means at his disposal to hunt down militants such as “Jihadi John” after the killer was unmasked as a Kuwaiti-born computer programming graduate from London.

The black-clad militant brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent was shown in videos released by Islamic State (IS) apparently decapitating hostages including Americans, Britons and Syrians.

“When there are people anywhere in the world who commit appalling and heinous crimes against British citizens, we will do everything we can with the police, with the security services, with all that we have at our disposal to find these people and put them out of action,” Cameron said.

Cameron refused to go into the unmasking of “Jihadi John” as 26-year-old British militant Mohammed Emwazi, but said that people should get behind the security services, which he praised as impressive and dedicated to defending Britain.

Emwazi was known to the security services, which had tried to recruit him, according to prisoners’ group Cage. The case has sparked debate about whether the security services let him slip through their grasp to join IS in Syria.

Dressed entirely in black, a balaclava covering all but his eyes and the bridge of his nose and a holster under his left arm, Jihadi John became a menacing symbol of Islamic State brutality and one of the world’s most wanted men.

He used videos to threaten the West, admonish its Arab allies and taunt President Barack Obama and Cameron before petrified hostages cowering in orange jump suits.

Emwazi’s name was first disclosed by the Washington Post. Two US government sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that investigators believed Jihadi John was Emwazi.

The Sun and The Daily Mail newspapers published a picture showing a schoolboy Emwazi smiling and sitting cross-legged on the grass at the front of the photograph from the St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school in Maida Vale, West London.

Born in Kuwait, Emwazi came to Britain aged 6 and graduated with a computer programming degree from the University of Westminster before coming to the attention of Britain’s main domestic intelligence service, MI5, according to an account given by Asim Qureshi, research director of Cage, a group that campaigns for those detained on terrorism charges.

Emwazi, a fluent Arabic speaker, said MI5 had tried to recruit him and then prevented him from travelling abroad, forcing him to leave the country without telling his family, Qureshi told a news conference in London.

At a meeting with reporters, Qureshi cast Emwazi as a kind and thoughtful young man who faced harassment from MI5, which apparently suspected he wanted to join the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab.

That account prompted criticism of MI5. But there was little patience with the narrative of Emwazi’s life presented by Qureshi, who called him a “beautiful man”.

The daughter of David Haines, a Scottish aid worker who was beheaded by Islamic State in September, told ITV news there should be more security at airports.

Bethany Haines also said she would not rest until Emwazi received a “bullet between his eyes”.

The family of Steven Sotloff, a US journalist beheaded in August, said they had faith his killer would be brought to justice. — Reuters

From ‘quiet, popular footballer’ to IS executioner

• The masked Islamic State (IS) executioner, Jihadi John loved playing football and was a "quiet lad" at a Church of England school. He was the only Muslim student in his class at St Mary Magdalene Church of England Primary School and his former classmates said that it was hard to believe that the "quiet lad" they had known from their schooldays had become a "notorious terrorist," reported The Mirror.
• Entries from a school yearbook showed that he liked S Club 7 and wanted to be a footballer when he grew up. An ex-classmate said that Emwazi was at the bottom half of the class but was popular and one of the "sporty guys." He recalled that he talked about his religion during a RE lesson and also showed students what Arabic looked like by writing it on the board.
• A friend of the family remarked that Emwazi's father is one of the "most good natured men in the world" and his mum is very nice too. They recalled that his dad once told them that he had become more religious but they did not think much about it.
• Emwazi, a University of Westminster graduate who earned a degree in computer sciences in 2009, is believed to have been radicalised by hate preacher Bilal al-Berjawi.
• The computer programmer appeared in the beheading videos of US journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David and Alan Henning, Americans Peter Kassig and James Foley. He is also believed to have killed Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto