British Isis fighters known as ‘the Beatles’ captured in Syria
Two British Isis militants implicated in brutal acts of torture and execution, have been captured by US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria.
The two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, formed part of a group of four fighters nicknamed “the Beatles” due to their British accents and are allegedly responsible for murdering approximately two dozen hostages in Syria.
Kotey, a 34-year-old convert to Islam who grew up in west London, and 29-year-old Elsheikh, whose family fled to the UK from Sudan in the 1990s, were the only remaining members of the group still at large.
The group’s leader, Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed Jihadi John, was killed in a 2015 airstrike. Emwazi was believed to be the militant responsible for the gruesome beheadings of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, which were captured on film and distributed in Isis propaganda videos.
The capture was first reported by the New York Times and independently confirmed by the Guardian.
Citing unnamed US officials, the Times reported the two men were captured by the American-backed Kurdish militia the Syrian Democratic Forces, operating south of the Euphrates river, close to the Syria-Iraq border.
Two US officials also confirmed the capture to Reuters. The two men were captured in early January, and US forces were given access to them, one of the officials told the news agency.
They all grew up in west London, and all wound up in the same cell of the Islamic State group guarding, torturing and killing hostages in Syria and Iraq.
Now, the last two members of the group dubbed the “Beatles” by their hostages, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, have been arrested by Syrian Kurdish fighters.
The group of four British men were radicalised in the UK before travelling to Syria, where they became infamous for their high-profile executions of Western hostages.
US officials believe the “execution cell” beheaded more than 27 Western hostages and tortured many more.
Each was known to their hostages by their respective Beatles moniker – Paul, Ringo, John and George.
I’m delighted that these animals have been caught & will face justice somewhere/someday (hopefully in the UK or USA) for their inhuman cruelty and abuse they showed to their poor hostages including James Foley , Steven Sotloff, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning
Whom after months/years of abuse & torture at the hands of theses monsters , where slaughtered like animals in the backyard of humanity , in the name of the sickest and most barbaric Islamic ideology of modern times.
Their crimes shocked and sickened all decent folk the world over , including peace loving Muslims and they passed a red line of humanity not seen since biblical times.
Thankfully Emwazi , the ringleader & most brutal of the group was incinerated on 12 November:
“as the car he was in was targeted in a strike by an unmanned drone in the city of Raqqa, destroying the car and killing him instantly”.
Hallelujah – Hope he’s burning in the eternal flames of hell!
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The Beatles Terrorist Cell
History & Background
“The Beatles“, dubbed as such by their hostages because of their English accents, was an active Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group. Its members were nicknamed John, Paul, George, and Ringo by the hostages, after the four members of the British rock group the Beatles. In November 2015, one of The Beatles was killed and one was arrested, but the other two remain active with ISIL as of 2017.
They have taken hostages; have guarded more than 20 Western hostages of ISIL in cramped cells in Western Raqqa, Syria; have beheaded hostages; and have memorialized their acts in beheading videos that they made public.
The Beatles spoke to each other in English, and struggled with Arabic. They always kept their faces hidden.
Guarding, torturing, and seeking ransoms for hostages
The Beatles, who have been assigned responsibility to guard foreign hostages by ISIL commanders, are harsher than other ISIL guards. One source said:
“Whenever the Beatles showed up, there was some kind of physical beating or torture.”
Haines, for example, was severely tortured and subjected to electric shock taser punishments by the Beatles, from the time of his March 2014 abduction. The group have also forced hostages to fight each other in boxing matches as the group watched, and then tortured the losers.
Because of their excessive brutality, at one point they were removed from their guard duties by ISIL.
The Beatles were interested in obtaining ransoms for their hostages. A former hostage reported that the Beatles bragged that they had been paid millions of dollars in ransoms by certain European countries; enough to retire to Kuwait or Qatar. The group contacted families of some UK hostages, and are believed to be maintaining links to their associates and friends in the UK.
James Foley‘s mother, Diane Foley, said in an interview:
“their requests were impossible for us, 100 million Euros, or all Muslim prisoners to be freed. The requests from the terrorists were totally directed towards the government, really. And yet we as an American family had to figure out how to answer them.”
The Beatles cell held at least 23 foreign hostages, nearly all of whom were ransomed or killed.
Jihadi John beheaded or participated in the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as British humanitarian aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, American aid worker Peter Kassig, Japanese private military contractor Haruna Yukawa, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, and 22 members of the Syrian armed forces in a period from August 2014 to January 2015.
A former ISIS member said that using a British man to carry out the beheadings was likely a deliberate effort by ISIS to:
“project the image that a European, or a Western person, killed an American so that they can … appeal to others outside Syria and make them feel that they belong to the same cause.”
Hostages
In August 2014, it was claimed that there were more than 20 hostages remaining. Many hostage families have chosen not to reveal their relatives’ names in order to avoid drawing attention to them and compromising their safety.
The jihadist known as “John”, usually referred to as “Jihadi John”, was identified by The Washington Post, in February 2015, as Mohammed Emwazi, and appears in a video as Foley’s killer. His identity was known to US and UK intelligence agencies in September 2014, but was not released for reasons of operational security.
On 12 November 2015, a United States drone aircraft reportedly conducted an airstrike in Raqqa that targeted Emwazi as he left a building and entered a vehicle. US officials stated he had been killed, but his death had not been confirmed. The US was still analysing the data.
The official called it a “flawless” and “clean hit” with no collateral damage and that Emwazi “evaporated”.A senior US military official was quoted as saying, “we are 99% sure we got him”. In January 2016, ISIL confirmed his death.
“George”
George, the leader of the Beatles, often spent time repeating sections of the Quran and promoting ISIL’s extremist views publicly. George uses the nom-de-guerre of “Abu Muhareb“, which means “Fighter” in Arabic. It was the view of the hostages that George was not very intelligent. The Daily Telegraph has speculated that George is the West London jihadist Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary who may have travelled to Syria with fellow jihadist Mohammed Emwazi.
Mohammed Emwazi.
In 2016, Alexanda Kotey, a 32 year old convert from west London, was identified as a member of the Beatles by The Washington Post and BuzzFeed News. They were uncertain whether he was George or Ringo, although social media evidence pointed towards Ringo.
Alexanda Kotey
A few months later, another joint investigation by the Post and BuzzFeed identified the last member of the group. El Shafee Elsheikh, a British citizen whose family fled Sudan in the 1990s, was a 27 year old Londoner who had travelled to Syria in 2012. They were still uncertain as to whether Elsheikh or Kotey was George.
In early January 2017, the US State Department froze the assets of Alexanda Kotey but did not confirm he was ‘George’.
“Ringo”
Ringo was frequently seen by the hostages. In 2016, Alexanda Kotey, a 32 year old convert from west London, was identified as a member of the Beatles by the Washington Postand BuzzFeed News. They were uncertain whether he was George, or whether he was Ringo, although social media evidence pointed towards Ringo.
A few months later, another joint investigation by the Post and BuzzFeed identified the last member of the group. El Shafee Elsheikh, a British citizen whose family fled Sudan in the 1990s, was a 27 year old Londoner who had travelled to Syria in 2012. They were still uncertain as to whether Elsheikh or Kotey was Ringo.
In early January 2017, the US State Department froze the assets of Alexanda Kotey but did not confirm he was ‘Ringo’.
“Paul”
Aine Lesley Davis
Paul appeared in the cells of the hostages less than the other Beatles, and appeared to be a guard only. Aine Lesley Davis, reported to have been one of the British Islamists assigned to guard Western hostages, was arrested in Turkey on 13 November 2015.
He was tried in Turkey in 2016 over allegations that he was plotting a terror attack there.[42]On 9 May 2017, he was convicted of terrorism offences by a Turkish court and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.
Reactions
The use of “Beatles” as a nickname for the group elicited a response from English musician and former Beatle Ringo Starr, who expressed his disgust at the use of his former band’s name in this context, saying:
“It’s bullshit. What they are doing out there is against everything The Beatles stood for,” and adding that the Beatles had stood for peace and opposed violence.
Former British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron said: “British people are sickened thaa British citizen could be involved in murdering people – including a fellow British citizen who had gone to Syria to help people – in this way. It is the very opposite of what our peaceful, tolerant country stands for.”
A significant force of the British Special Air Service was deployed to Northern Iraq in late August 2014, and according to former MI6 chief Richard Barrett will be sent to Syria, tasked with trying to track down the Beatles using a range of high-tech equipment and with potentially freeing other hostages.
As of September, British intelligence and security agencies including MI5 and Scotland Yard, aided by GCHQ communication monitoring, were working with the FBI and CIA, and field teams from MI6 and the CIA in Northern Syria, to identify and locate the group. British and US electronic eavesdropping agencies have targeted communications by the group.
In October, British Prime Minister Cameron told the heads of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ that the manhunt was their top priority
ISIS executioner ‘The Bulldozer of Fallujah’ cuts hand and foot off teen boy
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HE weighs more than 200kg. Big belly. Big arms. Big reputation
Over his shoulder he carries a weapon so large it’s normally mounted to a vehicle before it can be fired. On his face he wears a mask to conceal his identity — but he is unmistakable.
People know him as “The Bulldozer of Fallujah” and he’s the world’s most feared terror group’s biggest weapon. Until this week, the unnamed member of Islamic State tried to blend into the background. His exploits are now front and centre after his treatment of a 14-year-old boy named Omar.
The new member of the terror group’s feared “chopping committee” is no jolly fat man.
The mammoth Iraqi – who was first photographed toting a 52kg anti-aircraft gun meant for TANKS – has appeared slicing up children in a sick new series of videos.
He can be seen jumping – raising his humungous bulk off the ground – to get his full weight behind his deadly sabre.
Images have emerged of The Bulldozer surrounded by headless corpses after a flurry of beheadings.
Omar was in Syria fighting with the Free Syrian Army when things went terribly wrong.He was running ammunition and food to fighters made up of defected Syrian Armed Forces officers and everyday civilians.
Islamic State moved in on Deir Ezzor province, according to Channel 4, and Omar was captured. He was transferred to the Iraqi city of Mosul and offered a chance at freedom. The cost? Joining the death cult. When Omar refused, they decided to teach him a lesson
On Omar’s phone are pictures of The Bulldozer. There are also pictures of his own cut-off hand and foot.
In an interview with Channel 4, the teen, whose name has been changed, told a story that haunts him and has left him so devastated he has “given up on life”.
“I was strung up and tortured for a month and a half,” the teen said. “They were saying ‘Why don’t you pledge allegiance to Islamic State? Why don’t you fight against the non-Muslims with us?’ But they are slaughtering Muslims.”
He said IS made a show out of torturing him. The show would turn bloody and change his life forever when The Bulldozer moved in.
“They gathered the people, they tied down my hand and my leg, they put my hand on a wooden block and cut it off with a butcher’s knife,” Omar told Channel 4.
“Then they cut off my foot and put them both in front of me for me to see.”
Months later, hobbling around his home with bandages covering the ends of his limbs, Omar says he has lost all hope.
“I have given up on life.”
The 20st BEAST is known as “The Bulldozer of Fallujah” – and he is fast gaining as fearsome a reputation as Jihadi John.
Like the infamous Brit, The Bulldozer beheads his quivering victims on camera in cold blood.
And like the barbaric “Beatle” – real name Mohammed Emwazi – The Bulldozer hides his identity behind a mask.
But whereas Emwazi used a knife to decapitate Isis’s hostages – the new Mr Big uses an almighty sword
The former Iraqi soldier’s real name is Abu Azrael. Dressed in black and armed with a machine gun, an axe and a sword, he presents an imposing figure. He even has his own Facebook page with more than 340,000 likes.
On the page, Azrael, also known as “Iraq’s Rambo”, is pictured smiling with other soldiers, lifting weights in a gym and shouldering a rocket launcher.
He is believed to have killed a number of Islamic State fighters in dozens of locations but also had experience fighting against US forces during the Iraq War.
It’s unlikely The Bulldozer and The Father of the Archangel of Death will ever meet, but it hasn’t stopped the internet from wishing they would.
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ISIS ” DWARF” SOLDIER
DWARF SOLDIER: Move over Bulldozer, Jihadi ‘Little’ John is the next big ISIS terror
YOU’VE met the biggest extremist in Syria, now meet the smallest – the mini-militant dubbed Jihadi “Little” John.
Pics of the diddy diehard and his arsenal of terror, including AK47s and rocket launchers, have been doing the rounds on social media.
The wee warmonger has also been branded “Abu Ahmad Al-Chihuahua” by Beirut-based journalist Leith Abou Fadel, editor-in-chef of Al–Masdar news.
He speculated that Jihadi “Little” John was fighting with the al-Nusra front, al-Qaida’s pals in Syria – and warned “he bites”.
“I tried to find out more about him but the information was limited,” Abou Fadel said.
“All we know is that he is a member of the Syrian al-Qaida group Jabhat Al-Nusra.”
But some say he fights under an ISIS flag.
The three-foot fanatic is being lionised in the propaganda war against Russian hardman Vladimir Putin, who has been smashing Islamist targets in the country with a series of airstrikes.
Now the extremist could make short work of his Russian enemies
Despite Social media and certain Newspapers making light of this story it must always be remember that ISIS and other Islamic Extremist are no laughing matter and are a stain on humanity and need to be eradicated at all costs. The world has seen enough of their twisted ideology and would be a much richer place without them.
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The Bulldozer of Fallujah Captured
Update 1st June 2016
Karma is collecting its debts
If reports are true and this vile , evil human has been captured then this another in a long line of high profile setbacks for Islamic State and their deluded followers. The crimes of this monster are beyond evil and he is drenched in the blood of the innocent and NEEDS to pay for his crimes against humanity and membership of the merchants of death and destruction which is the Islamic State.
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ISIS Giant Executioner (Bulldozer) Captured by Syrian Army
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This dramatic footage appears to show the 20-stone ISIS executioner dubbed The Bulldozer being captured by the Syrian army.
The obese extremist, a member of the terror group’s so-called Chopping Committee, is seen lying half-naked in the back of a truck with his hands tied behind his back.
Crowds gather round to take pictures of the hulking jihadi, who appears to be grimacing, before he is driven off by Syrian Armed Forces in the footage posted online by Syrian sources.
A drone was used in the attack, according to a US official quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
A formal statement from the Pentagon stopped short of asserting that Emwazi had definitely been killed, adding that it was assessing the operation.
Prime Minister David Cameron is due to make a statement later on Friday.
“The prime minister has said before that tracking down these brutal murderers was a top priority,” a spokesperson said.
Analysis
by Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent
As the militant who sadistically murdered Western aid workers and journalists on camera, Mohammed Emwazi became a top target for US and British intelligence agencies, even though he is thought to have played no military role within Islamic State.
After his identity was revealed in February, Emwazi largely stayed out of sight, taking particular care not to leave a digital trail to his whereabouts.
But GCHQ, the UK government’s communications headquarters, has expended enormous efforts to intercept and decipher any encrypted messages that might reveal his location or those of his associates.
Emwazi is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2013 and later joined IS militants.
He first appeared in a video in August last year, when footage was posted online showing the murder of US journalist James Foley.
Earlier this year, details emerged about how Emwazi made a number of journeys abroad before he left for Syria in 2013.
They included a trip to Tanzania in August 2009, when he is believed to have first became known to security services in the UK.
His naming this year led to a row over the cause of his radicalisation, with British advocacy group Cage suggesting that contact with MI5 may have contributed to it.
However, Downing Street said that suggestion was “completely reprehensible”, with Mr Cameron defending the UK’s security services.
Civil war erupted in Syria four years ago, and now President Bashar al-Assad’s government, IS, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all hold territory. Millions have been displaced and more than 250,000 people killed as a result of the fighting.
IS aims to establish a caliphate over the entire Muslim world, a state ruled by a single political and religious leader according to Islamic law, or Sharia. It already hold control of swathes of land in Syria and Iraq.
Kurdish forces have meanwhile entered the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar captured by IS last year, while the Iraqi army says it has begun an offensive to retake the key western city of Ramadi.
At least 700 people from the UK have travelled to support or fight for jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq, British police say.
Security analyst Charlie Winter said that if Emwazi’s death was confirmed, it could affect those wanting to join Islamic State “out of a sense of adventure”.
He added: “They want to go and find a collective group where they can be part of something bigger. But they also don’t want to die.”
Mohammed Emwazi’s movements before heading to Syria
1. Aug 2009, refused entry to Tanzania: travels to Tanzania with two friends, but is refused entry at Dar es Salaam. Tanzanian police have denied Emwazi’s name is on their database of suspected foreign criminals detained and deported in 2009, as he had claimed. Emwazi and his friends are put on flight to Amsterdam, where they are questioned. They return to Dover and are questioned again.
2. Sept 2009, travels to Kuwait for work: leaves the UK for Kuwait for work.
3. May/June 2010, returns to UK for holiday: he returns to the UK for an eight-day visit.
4. July 2010, refused re-entry to Kuwait: Emwazi returns to the UK once more for a couple of days. He is stopped at Heathrow on his return to Kuwait and told he cannot travel as his visa has expired.
5. 2013, travels to Syria: Emwazi attempts to travel to Kuwait but is stopped and questioned. Three days later, he heads abroad. Police later inform his family he has travelled to Syria.
“Jihadi John”[4]
“John the Beatle”[5]
“Jailer John”[6]
Abu Abdullah al-Britani[7]
Abu Muharib al-Yemeni[8]
Mohammed al-Ayan[9]
Muhammad ibn Muazzam[10]
Emwazi was given the nickname “John” by a group of his hostages. The hostages said that he was part of a terrorist cell they called “The Beatles“, and that he guarded Western hostages while handling communications with their families. The nickname refers to John Lennon of the Beatles, and other members of the cell are known as “George”, “Paul”, and “Ringo”, in reference to the other Beatles. The cell members all had British accents.[19] The nicknames “Jihadi John”, “Jailer John” and “John the Beatle” were created by the press.[4]
Ringo Starr expressed his disgust at the use of his former band’s name in this context, saying: “It’s bullshit. What they are doing out there is against everything the Beatles stood for,” saying that the Beatles had stood for peace and opposed violence.[20]
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Jihadi John Apologizes to His Family – but for Beheading Hostages
In a video uploaded to YouTube on 19 August 2014, Foley read a prepared statement criticizing the United States, the recent airstrikes in Iraq, and his brother who serves in the United States Air Force.[21] Emwazi, wearing a mask, also read a prepared statement in which he criticized America and PresidentBarack Obama and made demands to cease the 2014 American-led intervention in Iraq.[21] 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 United States National Security Council confirmed that the video, which included footage of Foley’s beheaded corpse, was genuine.[21]
On 2 September 2014, a video was released reportedly showing American journalist Steven Sotloff‘s beheading by Emwazi.[22] The White House confirmed the video’s authenticity.[23]
On 13 September 2014, a video, directed at British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron, was released, showing British hostage aid worker David Haines being beheaded by Emwazi.[24]
On 3 October 2014, a video released by ISIS showing Emwazi beheading British aid worker Alan Henning. Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, Greater Manchester, had volunteered to deliver aid to Syria when he was kidnapped in Ad Dana, an area held by ISIS, on 27 December 2013.[25][26]
On 16 November 2014 a video was posted by ISIS of Emwazi standing over a severed head, which the White House confirmed was that of Peter Kassig.[27] Kassig’s actual beheading was not shown, and unlike earlier hostage beheading videos he did not make a statement.
Syrian soldiers
The video that ended with a shot of Kassig’s severed head showed the beheadings of 21 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.[28]
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, they were threatened to be killed unless the Japanese government paid a ransom of $200 million.[29] Haruna was beheaded on 24 January, and Kenji on 31 January 2015.[30]
Hostages
It was claimed in August 2014 that ISIS held more than 20 hostages.[31] Many hostage families chose not to reveal their relatives’ names in order to avoid drawing attention to them and compromising their safety.[citation needed] All or nearly all of the Europeans were ransomed by their countries. However, laws in the US and the UK prohibit payment of ransoms.[32]
The videos were produced and distributed by Al Hayat Media Center, a media outlet of ISIS that is under the authority of the ISIS’s official propaganda arm, the Al-Itisam Establishment for Media Production, that targets specifically Western and non-Arabic speaking audiences.[34]
Unofficial analysis
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.”[35] Two unnamed video specialists in the International Business Times of Australia claimed that portions of the video appeared to be staged and edited.[36] Dr. 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.[21] Jeff Smith, Associate Director of the CU Denver National Center for Media Forensics, said “What’s most interesting is that the actual beheading that takes place in the videos, both of them are staged.”[37]
British analyst Eliot Higgins (Brown Moses) 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.[38][39][40]
‘Jihadi John’ became the subject of a manhunt by the FBI, MI5, and Scotland Yard.[41][42][43] 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.[41] Despite this, several facts about ‘Jihadi John’ could be ascertained from both videos. He spoke with an apparent London or southern England accent[41] and appeared to have a skin tone consistent with African or South Asian descent.[21] In both videos, he was seen to sport a pistol in a leather shoulder holster under his left shoulder, typical of right-handed people,[44] but his actions in the videos suggest he is left-handed.[45]
Other factors that could have led to his identification were his height, general physique, the pattern of veins on the back of his hands,[21] his voice and clothes.[21][41] A team of analysts might use the topography of the landscape in the video in an attempt to identify the location.[21] 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,[46] but when pressed, refused to disclose any other details.[47]
On 14 September British Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that the identity of ‘Jihadi John’ was known but had yet to be revealed.[50]
On 25 September, FBI DirectorJames Comey told reporters that they had identified the suspect, but did not give information regarding the man’s identity or nationality.[51] “I believe that we have identified him. I’m not going to tell you who I believe it is,” Comey stated.[52] Michael Ryan, an author and scholar from the Middle East Institute speculated “Maybe 98 percent of 95 percent sure is not sure enough to put a man’s name out.”[51]
On 26 February 2015, The Washington Post identified the perpetrator as Mohammed Emwazi, a British man then in his mid-20s who was born in Kuwait and grew up in west London.[56][57][58]The Washington Post investigation was undertaken by Souad Mekhennet and Alan Goldman.[56]
Emwazi was born to Iraqi parents who moved to neighboring Kuwait from Iraq. When the Kuwaiti government rejected their application for citizenship, in 1994 they moved to Iraq and then on to Britain.[59] According to his student card from the University of Westminster, Emwazi was born on 17 August 1988.[1]
Scotland Yard and 10 Downing Street declined to comment on the reports.[60] The Counter Terrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police Service released a statement saying: “We are not going to confirm the identity of anyone at this stage or give an update on the progress of this live counter-terrorism investigation.”[61] The security services in the US and UK are believed to have known the identity of ‘Jihadi John’ since September 2014, but have not revealed the name for operational security reasons.[57]
In an interview with The Washington Post, one of Emwazi’s close friends said: “I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John. He was like a brother to me. … I am sure it is him.” Asim Qureshi, research director at the advocacy group CAGE, who had been in contact with Emwazi before he left for Syria, also identified the man in the videos as Emwazi, stating: “There was an extremely strong resemblance. This is making me feel fairly certain that this is the same person.” U.S. officials declined to comment for the Washington Post report, and Emwazi’s family declined a request for an interview.[56] Qureshi said that Emwazi was “extremely kind, gentle and soft-spoken, the most humble young person I knew”.[57]
The BBC stated that Emwazi is believed to be “an associate of a former UK control order suspect … who travelled to Somalia in 2006 and is allegedly linked to a facilitation and funding network for Somali militant group al-Shabab.”[57] He reportedly prayed on occasion at a mosque in Greenwich.[56] He graduated with a degree in Information Systems with Business Management from the University of Westminster (2009).[12] His final address in the UK before he went abroad was in the Queen’s Park area of north-west London.[16]
The Post reported interviews with Emwazi’s friends indicating that Emwazi was radicalized after a planned safari to Tanzania following his graduation. According to the interviews, Emwazi and two friends, a German convert to Islam named Omar and another man, Abu Talib, never made the safari. Rather, upon landing in Dar es Salaam in May 2009, the three were detained, held overnight by police, and eventually deported. In May 2010, The Independent reported on the episode, identifying Emwazi as Muhammad ibn Muazzam. According to e-mails sent by Emwazi to Qureshi and that were provided to the Post, after leaving Tanzania, Emwazi flew to Amsterdam, where he claimed that an MI5 officer accused him of attempting to go to Somalia, where al-Shabab operates. Emwazi denied attempting to reach Somalia, but a former hostage told the Post that “Jihadi John was obsessed with Somalia” and forced captives to watch videos about al-Shabab.[56] Tanzanian officials have denied that they detained and deported Emwazi at the request of MI5, saying instead that he had been refused entry for being drunk and abusive.[62]
Later, Emwazi and his friends were permitted to return to Britain, where Emwazi met with Qureshi in late 2009. The Post quoted Qureshi as saying that Emwazi was “incensed” at the way he had been treated. Emwazi moved to Kuwait shortly afterward, where (according to emails he wrote to Qureshi), he worked for a computer company. Emwazi returned to London twice, however, and, on the second visit, he made plans to wed a woman in Kuwait.[56]
In June 2010, Emwazi was detained by counter-terrorism officials in Britain, who searched and fingerprinted him, and blocked him from returning to Kuwait. In an email four months later to Qureshi, Emwazi expressed sympathy for Aafia Siddiqui, an al-Qaeda operative who had just been sentenced in U.S. federal court for assault and attempted murder. Qureshi said he last heard from Emwazi when Emwazi sought advice from him in January 2012. Close friends of Emwazi interviewed by the Post said that he was “desperate to leave the country” and one friend stated that Emwazi unsuccessfully tried to travel to Saudi Arabia to teach English in 2012. Sometime after January 2012, Emwazi traveled to Syria, where he apparently contacted his family and at least one of his friends.[56]
In March 2015, following media reports that his mother had recognised Jihadi John’s voice as her son’s,[63] his father denied that this had happened or that Emwazi was Jihadi John.[64]
Reactions
US PresidentBarack Obama condemned the actions of ‘Jihadi John’ and vowed punishment for all the militants responsible behind the videotaped beheadings.[65]Secretary of StateJohn Kerry also called ‘Jihadi John’ a “coward behind a mask” and, echoing Obama, stated that all those responsible would be held accountable by the United States.[65] British officials have also reiterated their commitment to capturing ‘Jihadi John’. Admiral Alan West, a former UK Minister for Security and Counter-terrorism, said that he is a “dead man walking” who will be “hunted down” like Osama bin Laden.[66] David Cameron also stated that he was absolutely certain that Jihadi John would “one way or another, face justice”, he also condemned the actions.[67][68] UK Justice SecretaryChris Grayling, and Secretary General of InterpolRonald Noble also stated that Jihadi John should be brought to justice.[69]
Reacting to the naming of Emwazi by the media, a spokesman for the family of Steven Sotloff told the BBC that they wanted to see him behind bars.[70] Bethany Haines, daughter of David, said “It’s a good step but I think all the families will feel closure and relief once there’s a bullet between his eyes.”[71]
Lord Carlisle, a former independent reviewer of UK anti-terror laws, said, “Had control orders been in place, in my view there is a realistic prospect that Mohammed Emwazi, and at least two of his associates, would have been the subject of control orders with a compulsory relocation.”[72]
In reaction to the revelation, Emwazi’s father, Jassem, has said that he is ashamed of his son. Previously, when he learned from his son that he was going to Syria “for jihad“, Jassem had told him that he hoped he would be killed.[73] But the day after the naming he issued a statement denying that his son was Jihadi John.[64] An unidentified cousin issued a statement which said, “We hate him. We hope he will be killed soon. This will be good news for our family.”[74]
On 8 March 2015, according to The Sunday Times, Emwazi apologised to his family for “problems and trouble the revelation of his identity has caused” them. The message was conveyed via an unspecified third party.[75]
Hostage reveals chilling moment Jihadi John drew sword on face of captive to brand him for beheading
Marc Marginedas, 46, was held by ISIS militants for six months last year
He says he was guarded by three men who spoke with British accents
Group nicknamed The Beatles because they regularly ‘beat’ prisoners
Jihadi John – later identified as Mohammed Emwazi – was the gang leader
He would draw on the prisoners heads with a red pen to mark out who he next planned to brutally execute in a filmed beheading
When his pencil was blunt he would scratch a cross into next victim’s head
Islamic State torturer-in-chief Jihadi John scratched the outline of a sword on the face of one of his victims in order to signify that he was to be beheaded, according to an account by a hostage held by the terrorist group. Spanish journalist Marc Marginedas, 46, who was released a year ago, says he and 18 other hostages were guarded by three terrorists, who all spoke with British accents.
And he reveals that they named them the ‘Beatles’ because they liked ‘beating’ people, not simply because they were British.
The leader of the group, who came to be known as Jihadi John and has since been identified as Kuwaiti-born Londoner Mohammed Emwazi, went on to behead five hostages. The hostages were eventually taken to a prison in Raqqa, northern Syria, where the ‘Beatles’ had a room next to the prisoners, separated only by a broken glass door and a curtain. Mr Marginedas said the three masked ‘Beatles’ liked to burst into their cell shouting and threatening the prisoners, and always ended up ‘beating’ at least one of the hostages.
Telling his story: Spanish journalist Marc Marginedas, 46, who was released by ISIS a year ago, says he and 18 other hostages were guarded by three terrorists, who all spoke with British accents
Prisoner: Marc Marginedas, a seasoned war reporter – was held for six months by Islamic State terrorists
On one occasion he recalls how Jihadi John carried out a savage beating of one of the hostages who had been told to approach the door.
Recalls Mr Marginedas: ‘Once in position, [Jihadi John] took a red pen and began to draw a sword on the [unnamed] hostage’s face, letting him know, in this macabre he would end his days in Syria, beheaded.’
‘The pen tip broke before he finished the sketch, but Jihadi John wanted to finish his work with the rest of sharpened pencil, already cut almost like a knife, tearing the skin of the cheek with a vengeance, and leaving for the following days a visible wound in the face, outlined by the scar.’
Mr Marginedas also claims that the Beatles were only put in charge of the prisoners because Islamic State commanders couldn’t spare hardened fighters from the battlefield.
And he believes this may have been a source of a grievance to them which only served to fuel their cruelty.
Mr Marginedas was captured on the 4th of September 2013 by rebel jihadists, close to the city of Hama, in Western Syria. He had entered the country three days before, through Turkey; accompanied by members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). According to Mr Marginedas, Jihadi John was a ‘manic-depressive’, similar to that of a serial killer so often depicted in films
Ill-treated: Marc Marginedas said the three masked ‘Beatles’ liked to burst into their cell shouting and threatening the prisoners, and always ended up ‘beating’ at least one of the hostages
Another Spanish journalist, released shortly after Mr Marginedas, has told how the prisoners had to wear orange jumpsuits and had to memorise in Arabic a number written on their back.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Javier Espinosa, described how Emwazi squeezed maximum drama out of the torture and intimidation of the hostages. Espinosa, a journalist for Spanish newspaper El Mundo, said Emwazi liked to carry an antique metre-long sword with a silver handle, of the kind Muslim armies used in the Middle Ages. After enduring a mock execution at the hands of Jihadi John, Mr Espinosa said ‘that encounter confirmed the psychopathic character of my interlocutors.’
Emwazi was among ‘psychotic’ extremists who pillaged the Spaniard’s belongings to put towards a haul of stolen cash apparently so large there were rooms filled with millions of dollars. It was, he continued, one of ‘several episodes of psychological and physical torture, privations and humiliations’ prisoners endured.
Pictured is Javier Espinosa, a Spanish journalist who was held along with his colleague Ricardo Garcia Vilanova (left) by ISIS between December 2013 and March last year. Espinosa, described how Emwazi squeezed maximum drama out of the torture and intimidation of the hostages
Mr Espinosa was snatched with his colleague photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova when the pair were working near the Turkish border in 2013.
Alongside American journalists and aid workers including Britons Alan Henning and David Haines, they were locked in ISIS prisons – as Mr Espinosa describes them as ‘elegant mansions’ and the former government headquarters in Raqqa – across the war-ravaged country for months.
Being woken by the screams of other hostages as they were tortured in their cells was commonplace. On one occasion, the Spaniard notes, a young boy was beaten to a pulp after being caught smoking – a forbidden habit under oppressive Sharia law.
The European and American hostages who disappeared had been either freed or moved, Mr Espinosa claims to have been told. Instead they were being picked off one by own, their deaths showcased to the world in barbaric propaganda videos.
Mr Marginedas recounts an incident in February last year when Jihadi John visited the hostages and claimed that he had been wounded in combat:
‘Once, on a February evening, he appeared in the room and began walking in circles to the silent hostages. He seemed limp, and claimed that he had been wounded in combat during the day.
‘He said “I wonder what you would do to me if you were in my position,” hinting that he was aware of the suffering being imposed on innocent and the desire for revenge that may be raising his performance.’
Mr Marginedas says the jihadists’ evil cruelty is further demonstrated by another episode in which the ‘Beatles’ gave the leftovers of their food to half the starving hostages while the remaining hostages were ordered to watch their fellow prisoners eating. This, he says, was designed to sow bad feeling among the prisoners – which it did, with recriminations against those who had played the Beatles’ game by eating the food.
Freed: The moment journalist Javier Espinosa was reunited with his son on the tarmac of a Spanish airport after spending months in captivity, held by ISIS terrorists
Mr Marginedas was one of the first of the 19 hostages from 11 different countries to be released by IS. He recalls how Jihadi John first told him the good news: ‘Marcos, Marcos [is the name on my passport], are you ready to go? ‘ , he asked in a quiet, mellow voice.
“Yeah, I replied, instinctively looked up by the surprise news that was giving me and forgetting that when we spoke to the ‘Beatles’ I had to keep my eyes focused on the ground, fearing that we might end up identifying these three masked by eye.
‘”Do not look at the eyes!”, he shouted, lifting his hand.
Brit Mohammed Emwazi aka “Jihadi John,” A Danish photographer who endured months of torture at the hands of ISIS says “Jihadi John” forced him to stand for days and dance the Tango at a prison in Syria. (REUTERS)
A Danish photographer who endured months of torture at the hands of Islamic State extremists says the terrorist killer known as “Jihadi John” forced him to stand for days and dance the Tango at a prison in Syria.
Daniel Rye Ottosen, 26– the last ISIS hostage to be released alive last June– revealed details about his experience in captivity in an interview Sunday with Denmark radio network DR.
The identity of “Jihadi John”– the British terrorist infamous for beheading at least 4 hostages—became public last spring. Mohammed Emwazi, 26, was born in Kuwait, raised in London, and graduated from Westminster University before going to Syria in 2013 to fight with ISIS.
He has become the face of several gruesome propaganda videos— wearing a mask and all black, and wielding a knife before decapitating high profile hostages captured by ISIS terrorists.
Ottosen– a freelance photographer from Odense, Denmark —says after being captured, Emwazi forced him into a degrading dance that ended in a brutal beating, Britain’s Telegraph reported Monday.
“‘Do you want to dance?'” he remembers Emwazi asking. “Then he took me up, and we were supposed to dance the Tango together, John and I.”
Days of beatings and torture taught Ottosen and his fellow hostages not to engage with their captors. “At that point, I just looked down at the ground the whole time because I did not want to look at them – if you looked them in the eye you would just get beaten even more.”
“So I had my head down and my arms up and he led me around the prison and then suddenly it just changed and he threw me down and kicked and hit me,” Ottosen said.
“Then they ended by threatening to cut my nose off with side-cutting pliers and such things,” Ottosen added.
Ottosen said that after his arrest he was repeatedly tortured for about two weeks in a cell in Aleppo, as the rebels tried to force him to confess to being a CIA spy.
Emwazi first appeared in an ISIS video in 2014, when he beheaded American freelance journalist James Foley. He later appeared in videos showing the beheadings of American journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Peter Kassig.
“They were very good at torturing. They were well aware of the where the limits lay,” Ottosen said. The most brutal torture involved being forced to stand for days on end.
“One of the tricks they used with me was to hang me up from the ceiling with my arms over my head and my hands handcuffed, hanging from a chain. I could stand with both of my feet on the ground but they left me there for an entire day,”Ottosen recalled.
The unending torture was so agonizing that when the extremists threatened to extend it for another three days, Ottosen broke down and tried unsuccessfully to take his own life to escape.
“I decided that I didn’t want to be a part of this world anymore,” he told DR. “So I took that chain around my neck and actually secured it with my little finger so that it couldn’t just loosen and then I hopped and tried to take my own life.”
Later, he was held in a children’s hospital with Foley. The two would do exercises in their cells to build strength and morale. “James was not so strong with his motor skills so I taught him to stand on one leg with closed eyes,” he remembers.
“We did some partner exercises where you lean against each other and then stand up. Some very basic things, but something that is difficult when you have no energy and when one’s muscles have basically disappeared.”
Ottosen was released in June last year after his family paid a 1.5 million pounds or $3.2 million to ISIS. Much of the ransom came from a Facebook fundraising campaign mounted by Ottomen’s sister, Anita Rye Ottosen.
The payment has been controversial, as Emwazi in the following months went on to behead Ottoman’s fellow captives. Both the American and British governments forbade the hostages’ families from giving in to ISIS demands.
Ottosen is still working through the psychological and physical trauma he experienced in the clutches of ISIS. He has only recently begun to work again as a photographer, after more than a year of healing. He has recounted his ordeal in a new book being released in Denmark Tuesday.
Belfast Child 