'Jihadi John' killer from Islamic State beheading videos unmasked as Londoner

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The masked "Jihadi John" killer who fronted Islamic State beheading videos has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a British computer programming graduate from a well-to-do London family who was known to the security services.

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.

The 26-year-old militant used the videos to threaten the West, admonish its Arab allies and taunt President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron before petrified hostages cowering in orange jump suits.

Emwazi's name was first disclosed by the Washington Post, citing unidentified former associates. Two U.S. government sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to Reuters that investigators believed Jihadi John was Emwazi.

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.

Hostages called him John as he and other Britons in Islamic State had been nicknamed the Beatles.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait but 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, the research director of the Cage charity 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 traveling abroad, forcing him to flee abroad without telling his family, Qureshi told a news conference in London.

Emwazi traveled to Syria around 2012, Qureshi said.

MI5 does not publicly comment on the identity of militants or their backgrounds while an investigation is still ongoing. The British government and police declined to confirm or deny Emwazi's identity, citing an ongoing security investigation.

"We don't confirm or deny matters relating to intelligence," said a spokeswoman for Cameron, who has ordered spy agencies and soldiers to track down the killer.

MOST WANTED MAN

"Jihadi John" rose to notoriety in August 2014 when a video appeared showing a masked man raging against the United States before apparently beheading U.S. citizen James Foley off camera.


A masked Islamic State militant holding a knife speaks next to man purported to be U.S. journalist J …

Intelligence services in the United States and Britain used a variety of investigative techniques including voice and facial recognition as well as interviews with former hostages to identify the man, intelligence sources said.

But security officials made great efforts to avoid publicly naming Emwazi, fearing that would make him more difficult to catch. Two intelligence sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were uneasy that the name had been revealed.

There was no answer at two addresses in west London where Emwazi was listed to have lived. Neighbors described the family as "normal people" and "friendly".

"This is the first time anything like this happens in this neighborhood," said Fatima Al-Baqali. "We have to be careful now. I didn't know this family and I usually know everyone here."

"JIHADI JOHN"

Qureshi, of the Cage charity which describes itself as having campaigned against the 'War on Terror' for more than a decade, said that although he could not be certain Emwazi was John, there were some "striking similarities". He declined to elaborate.

In a meeting with reporters in London, Qureshi painted a picture of 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.

British authorities have linked Emwazi to another British militant killed in Somalia in a U.S. drone attack.

A British court ruling dated December 2011 reported that Elwazi was an associate of Bilal al Berjawi, a high-ranking leader of the Somali-based militant group al Shabaab, a person in possession of the court ruling said.

Reuters has not seen the original court ruling. Media reports said he helped supervise the recruitment and training of new Shabaab members.

Qureshi said British spies had tried to recruit Emwazi as a source but declined to provide specifics.

"There's one character that I remember, one kind person that I remember and then I see that image and there doesn't seem to be a correlation between the two," Qureshi told reporters.

"I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London..," Emwazi wrote in an email to Cage.

He felt like "a person imprisoned and controlled by security service men, (who) stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace and my country, Kuwait".

Cage said Emwazi was detained in Tanzania, where he went for a safari holiday with two friends in August 2009.

He was deported to Amsterdam and interrogated by MI5 and a Dutch intelligence officer and then sent back to Britain, according to Qureshi.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the version of events given by the charity, which provoked criticism for shifting the responsibility for Emwazi's crimes.

"I think this is an attempt to deflect attention from Jihadi John," said Shiraz Maher, Senior Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King's College London.

"They're trying to lay the blame for this at the feet of the British government," he told Sky news.

The Cage charity, which also worked with the family of Michael Adebolajo, the Muslim covert who with an accomplice killed a British soldier in London in May 2013, said both men had been victims of undue pressure from the security services.

Britain's MI5 security service was not immediately available for comment on those allegations. MI5 has argued to British lawmakers that it would be damaging to national security to comment on allegations that is sought to recruit Adebolajo.

The British Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said last year that MI5 had investigated Adebolajo five times, twice as a high priority, but had found no evidence that any attack was being planned.

The Committee said it had found no evidence that Adebolajo was harassed by MI5.

After becoming frustrated following three failed attempts to return to Kuwait, and changing his name to Mohammed al-Ayan, Emwazi left his parents' home and slipped out of Britain, according to Qureshi.

Four months later, police visited the family home to say they had information he had entered Syria. His family thought he was in Turkey doing aid work.

"Jihadi John" fronted gruesome Islamic State videos that showed either the killing or bodies of victims including U.S. citizens James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, Britons David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese Kenji Goto and over 20 Syrian soldiers.

Original post found here: http://news.yahoo.com/bbc-names-jihadi-john-suspect-islamic-state-beheading-110602366.html

UK security 'failed' to stop girls from going to Syria, family says

Closed caption video of 3 London schoolgirls who left home possibly with plans to travel to the part of Syria controlled by the ISIS terror group.

The family of British woman suspected of encouraging three London schoolgirls to join the Islamic State in Syria said that officials “failed” to stop them from leaving the country.
Shamima Begun, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, and another girl reportedly joined Aqsa Mahmood, 20, in the country riddled by ISIS oppression. Mahmood, who reportedly went to Syria to b e a “jihadi bride” in 2013, had online contact with one of the girls last week before they left the country.
Mahmood’s family said in a statement that it was “full of horror and anger” that she “may have had a role to play” in recruiting the girls for the terror group.
"Aqsa's social media has been monitored since she disappeared over a year ago, yet despite alleged contact between the girls and Aqsa, they failed to stop them from leaving the UK to Turkey, a staging post for Syria."
The family’s lawyer told BBC that they want to know how the woman could have traveled to Turkey alone.
The three girls are close friends at Bethnal Green Academy in east London. They were last seen Tuesday morning after they left home, saying they were going out for the day.
But surveillance video revealed the girls traveled to London’s Gatwick airport and boarded a Turkish Airlines flight which landed in Istanbul Tuesday evening.
Police say the girls are close friends with another 15-year-old girl who fled to Syria in December.
"We are concerned about the numbers of girls and young women who have or are intending to travel to the part of Syria that is controlled by the terrorist group calling themselves Islamic State," Metropolitan Police Commander Richard Walton told Sky News.
"It is an extremely dangerous place and we have seen reports of what life is like for them and how restricted their lives become. It is not uncommon for girls or women to be prevented from being allowed out of their houses or if allowed out, only when accompanied by a guardian,” Walton told reporters.
Security checks for people departing from U.K. airports make it a "walk in the park for jihadis and girls like this" to leave, Former Metropolitan Police border control officer Chris Hobbs says.
"At the moment you go through security, you get on the plane, you might be checked by a private security guard," he said. “If you're on a watch list then you will ping the system. If you're not on the radar then the odds are you will get on the plane without too many problems."
The girls-- who are British nationals of Bangladeshi descent-- were all wearing Western clothes at the airport. Shamima was wearing black glasses and a hijab, Kadiza was also wearing glasses and a grey striped scarf, and the unidentified girl was wearing glasses and a black head scarf.
"The choice of returning home from Syria is often taken away from those under the control of Islamic State, leaving their families in the U.K. devastated and with very few options to secure their safe return," Walton said.
The number of Westerners who have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS is thought to be about 3,000, including as many as 550 women, according to the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Original post found here: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/22/uk-security-failed-to-stop-girls-from-going-to-syria/

Turkish military enters Syria to evacuate soldiers, relocate tomb

Turkish tanks are pictured in the northern Syrian town of Kobani as they return from a military operation inside Syria February 22, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Mursel Coban/Depo Photos

Turkish forces swept into Syria overnight to rescue about 40 soldiers who had been surrounded for months by Islamic State militants while guarding the tomb of a revered Turkish figure.
The Syrian government described the operation as act of "flagrant aggression" and said it would hold Ankara responsible for its repercussions.
The action, which involved tanks, drones and reconnaissance planes as well as several hundred ground troops, was the first such incursion by Turkish troops into Syria since the start of the civil war there nearly four years ago.
The military said no clashes took place during the operation although one soldier had been killed in an accident.
The 38 soldiers who had been guarding the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, were brought safely home. The tomb, which is on a site within Syria that Ankara considers sovereign territory as agreed in a 1921 treaty, was relocated.
Normally, the detachment is rotated every six months but the last one was trapped there for eight months by Islamic State fighters.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that Turkey had not sought permission or assistance for the mission but had informed allies in the coalition against Islamic State once it began.
"This was an extremely successful operation with no loss to our rights under international law," he said, flanked by the chief of the military and the defense minister.
The Syrian government said in a statement that Turkey would be held responsible for its breach of the treaty after failing to wait for an agreement from Damascus before proceeding with the operation.
The Turkish government had informed the Syrian consulate in Istanbul about the operation but had not awaited Syria's agreement, it said, adding that the operation was a violation of the 1921 agreement.
A Turkish security source said the operation was conducted via the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani with the support of local Kurdish authorities. Kurdish forces, backed by U.S.-led air strikes, drove Islamic State from Kobani last month.
The Turkish foreign ministry said the tomb had been temporarily moved to a new site within Syria north of the village of Esmesi close to the Turkish border.
Davutoglu said about 100 military vehicles, including 39 tanks, were involved along with 572 military personnel including special forces commandos. Turkish fighter jets were on alert during the mission but did not need to be deployed, he said.
OPERATION "SHAH EUPHRATES"
Turkey has been reluctant to take an active role in the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State, partly because it wants to see the military action target Syrian government forces as much as the insurgents.
But the Turkish government said late last year that Islamic State militants were advancing on the mausoleum, perched on the banks of the Euphrates river and made Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921, when France ruled Syria.
Davutoglu had repeatedly said that Turkey would retaliate against any attack on the tomb, which was located 37 km (23 miles) from the Syrian border before being moved overnight.
"Countries which do not look after their historic symbols cannot build their future," he said on Sunday.
The Syrian government statement said the fact that Islamic State had not attacked the tomb "confirmed the depth of the ties between the Turkish government and this terrorist organization".
Syria accuses Turkey of supporting insurgent groups that have seized control of wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, including Islamic State.
Two operations were carried out simultaneously as part of what was dubbed operation "Shah Euphrates", Davutoglu said, one to Suleyman Shah and the other to secure the area around Esmesi. He said the remaining buildings at the original site were destroyed to prevent their use after the remains were removed.
Turkish soldiers raised the Turkish flag at the site where the tomb was relocated. Davutoglu said it would be returned to its previous location once conditions allowed.
Islamic State and other Islamist groups, whose strict Salafi interpretation of Islam deems the veneration of tombs to be idolatrous, have destroyed several tombs and mosques in Syria.
Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of Osman I who founded the Ottoman Empire in 1299. Traveling through modern-day Syria, he fell off his horse and drowned in the Euphrates near the site of the mausoleum, according to historians.

Original post found here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/22/us-syria-crisis-turkey-idUSKBN0LQ03U20150222

Kurds regain Syrian villages from Islamic State

BEIRUT: Kurdish forces backed by US-led air strikes have regained control of at least 163 villages around the Syrian town of Kobani after driving back Islamic State militants in the past three weeks, a group monitoring the conflict said on Saturday.


The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that although the Kurds had recaptured many villages since winning back Kobani in late January, their progress had been slowed by renewed clashes to the west and southwest of the town, where Islamic State had redirected its fighters.


The battle for the predominately Kurdish town, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, became a focal point for the US-led air campaign against the al Qaeda offshoot in Syria.


Islamic State controls large areas of northern and eastern Syria, including a strip of territory across the northern Aleppo countryside and a corridor stretching southeast from Raqqa province to the frontier with Iraq.

Original post found here: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/foreign/15-Feb-2015/kurds-regain-syrian-villages-from-islamic-state

Obama seeks some limits on ground troops for Islamic State fight

Militant Islamist fighters hold the flag of Islamic State while taking part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province, June 30, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Stringer

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will propose to Congress on Wednesday a new three-year authorization for the use of force against Islamic State with limits on U.S. combat troops' involvement, lawmakers and congressional aides said.
Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since Aug. 8 when U.S. fighter jets began attacking the jihadists in Iraq. But he has faced criticism for failing to seek the backing of Congress, where some accuse him of breaching his constitutional authority.
Facing pressure to let lawmakers weigh in on an issue as important as the deployment of troops and chastened by elections that handed power in Congress to Republicans, he said in November he would request formal authorization for the use of military force (AUMF).
An outline of that request, expected to be handed to Congress on Wednesday, could stir debate over how U.S. troops should be deployed and the extent of U.S. engagement in Iraq and Syria.
The proposal would allow the use of special forces and advisors for defensive purposes but bar "enduring offensive ground forces," lawmakers and aides said. It would not, however, set geographic limits for the campaign against the group.
Until now, Obama has justified U.S. air strikes in Iraq and Syria under a 2001 authorization passed after the Sept. 11 attacks and a 2002 authorization used by President George W. Bush in the Iraq war.
The new proposal would repeal the 2002 authorization but leave in place the 2001 AUMF, which has been invoked by the White House to carry out drone and missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen and Somalia.


Fueled by outrage over the death of aid worker Kayla Mueller, the last-known U.S. hostage held by Islamic State militants, as well as the slayings of journalists and a Jordanian pilot, lawmakers said they planned quick hearings on the authorization, and a vote within weeks of Congress' return from a Feb. 16-20 recess.
Both Republicans and Democrats said there had been unusually close consultations between the administration and Capitol Hill on the authorization.
Many of Obama's fellow Democrats, war-weary after more than a dozen years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, say they will oppose any AUMF that includes "boots on the ground."
Obama's opposition to the Iraq War helped propel him to victory in the 2008 campaign and bringing troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan has been a focus of his presidency.
"I worry that this AUMF gives the ability for the next president to put ground troops back into the Middle East," said Senator Chris Murphy, adding that that would be a sticking point for himself and many other Democrats.
Some hawkish Republicans oppose restrictions on military commanders such as a ban on ground troops. Others are calling for a more extensive authorization allowing U.S. forces to challenge President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, where a four-year-long civil war has fueled the rise of the Islamic State group.
"If the authorization doesn't let us counter Assad's air power, I think it will fail," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican foreign policy voice.
The White House has declined to discuss the specific time frame or details of its planned AUMF.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, David Lawder and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Jason Szep and Christian Plumb)

Original post found here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/11/us-mideast-crisis-congress-idUSKBN0LE2BD20150211

Assad says Syria is 'informed on anti-IS air campaign'

President Bashar al-Assad on anti-IS strikes: "We knew about the campaign before it started, but we didn't know about the details"

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad says his government is receiving messages from the US-led coalition battling the jihadist group, Islamic State.

Mr Assad told the BBC that there had been no direct co-operation since air strikes began in Syria in September.
But third parties - among them Iraq - were conveying "information".
He also denied that Syrian government forces had been dropping barrel bombs indiscriminately on rebel-held areas, killing thousands of civilians.
Mr Assad dismissed the allegation as a "childish story", in a wide-ranging interview with BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Damascus.
"We have bombs, missiles and bullets... There is [are] no barrel bombs, we don't have barrels."
Our correspondent says that his denial is highly controversial as the deaths of civilians in barrel bomb attacks are well-documented.

Analysis: Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East Editor Mr Assad's many enemies will dismiss his view of the war.
For them, he has been in charge of a killing machine that has been chewing Syrians up and spitting them out.
As the war enters its fifth year, the barrel bomb has become the most notorious weapon in the regime's arsenal.
Two or three years ago, I saw the results of what must have been one in Douma, a suburb of Damascus that has been held by rebels since close to the beginning of the war.
Mr Assad insisted that the Syrian army would never use them in a place where people lived.
"I know about the army. They use bullets, missiles and bombs. I haven't heard of the army using barrels, or maybe, cooking pots."
It was a flippant response; the mention of cooking pots was either callousness, an awkward attempt at humour, or a sign that Mr Assad has become so disconnected from what is happening that he feels overwhelmed.

Aleppo has continually been hit by barrel bombs, activists say

 

'No dialogue' Many US-led coalition states have denied co-operating with Mr Assad, whom they have urged to step down since an uprising against his rule erupted in 2011.
But the Islamic State's (IS) seizure of large parts of Syria and Iraq in the past year and its creation of a "caliphate" has prompted officials to consider working with the Syrian leader to combat the group.
Despite this, Mr Assad ruled out joining the international coalition that is seeking to "degrade and destroy" IS.

 

 The Jordanian air force has stepped up strikes on IS positions in Syria since the killing of one of its pilots

"No, definitely we cannot and we don't have the will and we don't want, for one simple reason - because we cannot be in an alliance with countries which support terrorism," he said.
He did not give details, but the Syrian government routinely portrays both jihadist militants and members of the political opposition as "terrorists".
Mr Assad stressed that he was not against co-operating over IS with other countries. But he would refuse to talk with American officials, he said, "because they don't talk to anyone, unless he's a puppet", an apparent reference to Western- and Gulf Arab-backed opposition leaders.
"And they easily trample over international law, which is about our sovereignty now, so they don't talk to us, we don't talk to them."

President Assad dismissed efforts by the US to train and equip a "moderate" rebel force to fight IS militants

The president did concede, however, that his government had been receiving information indirectly via third parties about sorties by US and Arab warplanes over Syria.
"Sometimes, they convey a message, a general message, but there's nothing tactical," he said, adding: "There is no dialogue. There's, let's say, information, but not dialogue."
Mr Assad dismissed efforts by the US to train and equip a "moderate" rebel force to fight IS militants on the ground in Syria, saying it was a "pipe-dream". He argued that there were no moderates, only extremists from IS and al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front.
'No indiscriminate weapons' Elaborating on his denial of the use of barrel bombs, Mr Assad said: "I know about the army. They use bullets, missiles and bombs. I haven't heard of the army using barrels, or maybe, cooking pots."
He added: "There are no indiscriminate weapons. When you shoot you aim, and when you shoot, when you aim, you aim at terrorists in order to protect civilians... You cannot have war without casualties."

 

Mr Assad said Syrian government forces would not indiscriminately bomb civilian areas

Barrel bombs are large cylindrical metal containers filled with explosive and shrapnel.
Human rights activists say they are typically dropped from helicopters - which only government forces are believed to operate - at high altitudes to avoid anti-aircraft fire. At that distance, it is impossible to target with precision, they add.
Mr Assad similarly denied that government forces had used chlorine as a weapon, despite investigators from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons supporting claims that at least 13 people had been killed in a series of attacks by helicopters on three villages last year.
The president also defended the besieging of rebel-held areas across Syria, which activists say has had the effect of starving civilian residents.
"In most of the areas where the rebels take over, the civilians fled and come to our areas," he said. "So in most of the areas that we encircle and attack, are only filled with militants."

Original news found here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31312414

Islamic State says female U.S. hostage killed in Syria

(Reuters) - The Islamic State militant group said on Friday that an American female hostage it was holding in Syria had been killed when Jordanian fighter jets hit a building where she was being held, the SITE monitoring group said.

In Washington, U.S. officials said they could not confirm that the woman, who has been identified as Kayla Mueller, had been killed. Reuters also could not immediately confirm the report.

Islamic State in Syria seen under strain but far from collapse

Fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) patrol in the streets of the northern Syrian town of Kobani January 28, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Osman Orsal

(Reuters) - Islamic State's defeat in Kobani and other recent setbacks in Syria suggest the group is under strain but far from collapse in the Syrian half of its self-declared caliphate.
Islamic State's high-profile defeat by Kurdish militia backed by U.S.-led air strikes capped a four-month battle that cost Islamic State 2,000 of its fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war.