ISIS Man Who Beheaded Prisoners Reportedly Identified As London Man

A central figure in videos released by the self-declared Islamic State has been identified as a man from West London. He's seen here dressed in black, threatening Japanese captives Haruna Yukawa (right) and Kenji Goto Jogo. Kyodo /Landov hide caption





itoggle caption Kyodo /Landov



The name of the man who has recorded videos of himself threatening and killing several Western hostages in the name of the self-proclaimed Islamic State is Mohammed Emwazi, according to multiple news outlets. He is reportedly a British citizen from West London who was born in Kuwait.



British security services have been aware of the man's identity, the BBC says, adding that "They chose not to disclose his name earlier for operational reasons."



The same name is being reported by The Washington Post, citing interviews with friends and associates of Emwazi. The newspaper says he is "from a well-to-do family... and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming."



There's been no official confirmation of the name of man who had formerly been dubbed "Jihadi John" by media outlets; we'll update this post as more details come in.



The BBC reports, "Emwazi is believed to be an associate of a former UK control order suspect, who travelled to Somalia in 2006 and is allegedly linked to a facilitation and funding network for Somali militant group al-Shabab."



Emwazi has been a central figure in the grisly ISIS videos in which prisoners have been beheaded and threats have been delivered against the U.S. and other countries.



Dressed all in black with only his eyes and hands exposed, the ISIS figure first attracted notice last August, when he addressed the camera in fluent English before hostage James Foley, a U.S. journalist, was beheaded.



Shortly after Foley's death, British ambassador to the United States Peter Westmacott said, "We are close" to identifying the central figure in the video.



Since then, the man named today as Emwazi has appeared in more videos in which hostages were killed, including the Britons David Haines and Alan Henning, as well as the Americans Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, who changed his first name to Abdul-Rahman during his captivity.



The same man is also believed to be in more recent videos in which two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, were beheaded.

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