US TARGETING ‘JIHADI JOHN’, THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING IS EXECUTIONER

Washington, 12 Jumadil Awwal 1436/3 March 2015 (MINA) – US forces are targeting the London man believed to be “Jihadi John,” an Islamic State executioner, a senior Democratic senator said.

London graduate Mohammed Emwazi was unmasked by media this week as allegedly the English-speaking executioner responsible for the beheading of at least five Western hostages held by the IS group in Syria and Iraq.

Asked whether the US was “going after” Emwazi specifically, Dianne Feinstein responded affirmatively.

“Oh, yes. He’s a target. There should be no question about that,” the former Senate Intelligence Committee chair told CBS television’s “Face the Nation”, Arab News quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The Kuwait-born computer expert, believed to be 26 or 27 years old, appeared for the first time in a video during the execution of American journalist James Foley in 2014.

He presided over numerous killings, and delivered English messages in execution videos.

Feinstein said Emwazi’s story of Western disaffection spoke to a “major problem” confronted by Western nations.

“What it tells us is that there are many young people, and you can see this by the number of tweets on Twitter, who are so disaffected,” she said.

“Whether they feel rejected socially, whether they feel they don’t have an opportunity, whether they feel this country is anti-Muslim, which it is not, I don’t know.”

For BBC, Abu Ayman, as he calls himself, is a skinny young man in his 20s, with a ready smile, and a defector from IS, also known as Isis or Isil.

He spoke to us about his encounters with one of the world’s most wanted men.

When they met, they were both just ordinary fighters with Islamist groups fighting the Syrian regime.

Foreign fighters – many from Britain – had gathered at a town called Atmeh in northern Syria.

Atmeh was – and is – a sprawling, desolate refugee camp on a hillside. (T/P001/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)