UK - Jihadi John identified as Mohammed Emwazi

The masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John", who has been pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages, has been named.

The BBC understands he is Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man in his mid-20s from west London, who was known to UK security services.

They chose not to disclose his name earlier for operational reasons.

Emwazi first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the American journalist James Foley.

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For many British, the familiar London-accented voice in the killings made the videos particularly upsetting. And that, of course, is no accident. The slick IS media machine, which depicts its black-clad fighters like the heroes in an action movie, has realized that accent and language matter—and that someone who sounds like a friend, neighbor, or someone one went to school with will be more chilling to the British public than someone who can be categorized more easily as “the other.”

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Neighbours today told The Independent the family were a "normal Muslim family". One local resident, who did not want to be named, said that they were "quiet".

Khosru Khan, 32, a worshipper at the local mosque, said: "It's a mystery to us who he is, a mystery to the whole world. It's shocking that he is local to here, but he’s never prayed in this mosque. We don’t know him.

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SurfieTX said:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...bours-as-a-normal-muslim-family-10072403.html

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"Muslims are being demonised all the world over, so we expect to see it here. He seems to be the demonised bogeyman for political purposes."

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Speaking outside the home a local man, who did not want to be named, said: "I didn't know him. Everybody in Islam agrees that murder is wrong... But this generation is changing, the world is changing.
"People think that a lot of what's being said about Iraq and Syria about burning people and beheadings is questionable.
"Is it made up? Really we don't know this guy or if anything is true."

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Snick1946 said:

Is there some reason why we are not being shown any picture of this man's face? Could intelligence agencies have a reason for not wanting this out there? I just think there would have to be pics of him from his school days, etc. This whole thing is very strange.

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Terrified relatives of Mohammed Emwazi want to change their identities over fears of revenge at tacks, friends said yesterday.

The jihadi’s parents have gone into hiding and are ‘living in fear’ that they and their children could be targeted by those demanding revenge.

Friends spoke out to defend the family – said to be moderate Muslims who had never supported extremism – fled their home in affluent Maida Vale, West London, before he was revealed to be the terrorist killer Jihadi John, and have not been seen since.

His Kuwaiti parents and their five other children – who the Mail has decided not to name – plan to change their identities to escape his notoriety and believe they will have to start new lives, away from London.

A close friend said: ‘I spoke to his sister and she is devastated. They are having to move, to change their identities. They are going through a very hard time.

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Jihadi John's beard and the way he walked was the key to the missile strike that killed him, a new documentary has revealed. The merciless executioner was identified by a drone flying at night over the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, which beamed back infrared pictures to military chiefs in the US. Within 15 seconds a missile was launched which obliterated the fanatical Londoner as he spoke on the phone.

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PastTense said:

A Channel 4 documentary being broadcast on Monday reveals for the first time details of how Jihadi John, whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi, was hunted down and killed with the help of state-of-the-art tracking and identification technology.

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