The masked Islamic State militant dubbed “Jihadi John”, who appeared in the beheading videos of Western hostages, has been identified.
The masked man is reportedly 27-year-old Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British resident from West London.
Emwazi has been known to UK security services since at least 2011, but it is unclear when they identified him as “Jihadi John”.
He appears in the execution videos of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman (formerly Peter) Kassig.
In each video, which are believed to have been filmed around Raqqa in Syria, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State, he appears with a black balaclava covering his face and wearing a long black robe.
He spoke to the camera with a British accent, taunting and threatening Western powers before appearing to cut the necks of the hostages.