A man in ISIS videos showing the be-headings of Western hostages has been identified.
[WORLD] The identity of the man, who has become widely known as “Jihadi John,” was un-reveled Thursday as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Londoner, the Reuters news agency reported, citing The Washington Post.
A Muslim-led human rights advocacy group in London, CAGE, which had contact with Emwazi over alleged “harassment” by UK security services, also said in a statement there were “some striking similarities” between Emwazi, age 26, and Jihadi John.
London’s Metropolitan Police declined to confirm the reported identity. CNN has not been able to confirm any of the claims made by CAGE concerning Emwazi.
A UK Foreign Office spokeswoman told CNN: “We will neither confirm nor deny the current reporting as to the identity of Jihadi John.”
The reporting in the Washington Post, quoted by Reuters, suggests Emwazi was from a middle-class family and grew up in London. He reportedly graduated from the University of Westminster in London with a degree in computer programming.
The Washington Post report, cited by Reuters, quoted unnamed friends of Emwazi as saying they believed his path to radicalization began when he went on a trip to Tanzania, in East Africa, in 2009 after graduating.
He was supposed to be going on safari there, but was reportedly detained on arrival, held overnight and then deported.
He was also detained by counter-terrorism officials in Britain in 2010, Reuters said, citing the Post.
Emwazi is believed to have traveled to Syria in 2012, according to the Washington Post reporting cited by Reuters, and later to have joined ISIS there.
The advocacy group CAGE, in a statement on its website, said its research director Asim Qureshi had met with a Washington Post reporter who asked about the name Mohammad Emwazi.
CAGE’s files revealed that Qureshi had worked on Emwazi’s case “due to security service harassment,” the statement said.
