Jihadi John
Mohammed Emwazi, known around the world as Jihadi John, hid everything about himself in front of a camera except his eyes. He dressed in black from head to toe, with only a pair of tan desert boots breaking the colour. His voice gave away a little more. In the videos released by the group calling itself Islamic State in 2014 and 2015, he sounded like someone from London or southern England. That accent was a clue, and an uncomfortable one for Britain. Who was the man behind the mask? What path leads a boy who grew up in west London to a camera in Syria? And how do investigators find a person who shows them almost nothing?
Some of the men held captive in Syria gave him a name long before any newspaper did. They called him John. The hostages said he guarded Western prisoners and handled communication with their families. He belonged to a four-man cell whose members all spoke with British accents, so the captives nicknamed the group The Beatles. The name John pointed to John Lennon, and each of the other three members was given the first name of another Beatle.
Journalists added labels of their own. "Jailer John" and "John the Beatle" both appeared in the press, but "Jihadi John" was the one that stuck. It ran on the 20th of August 2014 in The Spectator, a conservative magazine. The piece was by Douglas Murray, a frequent critic of Islam, and it presented the figure as "a very British export". The BBC and other outlets soon adopted the same name.
The label spread quickly, yet it would be many months before anyone could attach a real name to it.
Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri was born on the 17th of August 1988 in Kuwait. He was the eldest of five children of Jassem and Ghaneyah Emwazi. The family were Bidoon, stateless people of Iraqi origin who held no Kuwaiti citizenship papers. They lived in the Taima area of the town of Al Jahra, a district described as a "slumtown" where the Kuwaiti government pushed stateless residents together.
In 1994, when he was six, the family moved to the United Kingdom. They settled in inner west London and moved between several properties in Maida Vale, including subsidised accommodation. Later they lived in St John's Wood and finally in Queen's Park. He attended St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school and then Quintin Kynaston School, where his former headteacher said he suffered some bullying.
In 2006 he enrolled at the University of Westminster to study Information Systems with Business Management. Three years later he graduated with a lower second-class Bachelor of Science honours degree. At 21 he worked as a salesman for an IT company in Kuwait, and his boss judged him the best employee the firm had ever had. At some point he became a British citizen. After that he began travelling back to Kuwait, as did his father.
MI5 knew of Emwazi years before he appeared in any execution video. Officers first suspected him of links to Al-Shabaab, and he was repeatedly stopped from travelling to Kuwait. The former shadow home secretary David Davis later criticised the intelligence services, noting how many people appeared to have "slipped through the net".
The Washington Post later reported how his friends described his turning point. After graduating, Emwazi planned a safari in Tanzania with two companions. One was a German convert to Islam named Omar, and the other was a man called Abu Talib. In May 2009 the three landed in Dar es Salaam, were held overnight by police and were deported. The Independent reported the episode in May 2010 and named him as Muhammad ibn Muazzam. Tanzanian officials denied acting for MI5. They said he had been refused entry for being drunk and abusive.
Emwazi told his side in emails to Asim Qureshi, research director of the human rights group Cage. He wrote that he flew on to Amsterdam, where an MI5 officer accused him of trying to reach Somalia, where al-Shabab operates. He denied it. A former hostage told the Post a different story, saying "Jihadi John was obsessed with Somalia". According to that hostage, he forced captives to watch videos about al-Shabab.
Emwazi and his friends were allowed back into Britain, and in late 2009 he met Qureshi, who described him as "incensed" at his treatment. Soon afterward he moved to Kuwait and worked for a computer company. He returned to London twice, and on the second visit he made plans to marry a woman in Kuwait.
In June 2010, counter-terrorism officials detained him in Britain, searched him, took his fingerprints and blocked his return to Kuwait. Four months later he emailed Qureshi to voice sympathy for Aafia Siddiqui, who had just been sentenced in a US federal court for assault and attempted murder. Qureshi last heard from him in January 2012, when Emwazi asked for advice. Close friends said he was "desperate to leave the country", and one said he tried and failed to travel to Saudi Arabia to teach English in 2012.
Sometime after January 2012, Emwazi travelled to Syria, where he apparently contacted his family and at least one friend. The next public trace of him was a masked figure in front of a camera.
On the 19th of August 2014, a video uploaded to YouTube showed the American journalist James Foley reading a prepared statement. He criticised the United States, its recent airstrikes in Iraq and his own brother, who serves in the US Air Force. Beside him, the masked Emwazi read a statement of his own, attacking the US and Barack Obama and demanding an end to the American-led intervention in Iraq. The masked man then beheaded Foley off-camera and threatened Steven Sotloff if the demands were not met.
Steven Sotloff, another American journalist, appeared in a video released on the 2nd of September 2014. The White House confirmed that the video was authentic.
On the 13th of September 2014, a video addressed to the British Prime Minister David Cameron showed the death of David Haines, a British aid worker.
Alan Henning, a taxi driver from Salford in Greater Manchester, followed in a video released on the 3rd of October 2014. He had volunteered to deliver aid to Syria. He was kidnapped in Al-Dana, then an area held by IS, on the 27th of December 2013.
The video of the 16th of November 2014 differed from the earlier ones. Emwazi stood over a severed head that the White House confirmed was that of Peter Kassig. Kassig's death was not shown, and unlike earlier captives he made no statement. Some have speculated that he resisted and was shot, because a surgeon who examined the footage noted possible evidence of a gunshot wound.
That same video also showed the killing of a number of Syrian soldiers by a group led by the masked Emwazi. The BBC noted that, unlike previous releases, many of the militants showed their faces, and it placed the scene at Dabiq in Aleppo Province. It said the video "revels in gore". Earlier videos had cut away from the killing, but this time Emwazi was shown beheading a victim. Early reports put the number of dead at no fewer than 12, or at 18. Later analysis by the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium and the UK-based counter-extremism think tank Quilliam concluded that 22 captive soldiers were executed.
Two Japanese men are also listed among his reported victims. Haruna Yukawa, aged 42, was captured sometime before August 2014. Kenji Goto, aged 47, was captured in October 2014 while trying to rescue Yukawa. In January 2015 a threat said they would be killed unless the Japanese government paid a ransom of 200 million. Yukawa was beheaded on the 24th of January and Goto on the 31st of January 2015.
Not everyone who studied the earliest footage agreed on what the cameras had recorded.
The FBI and the US National Security Council confirmed that the James Foley video was genuine. David Cameron and the British Foreign Office did the same for the video showing David Haines. Even so, a number of specialists argued that the recordings had been carefully produced.
The Times commissioned an unnamed forensics expert to examine the Foley video. The expert said, "I think it has been staged. My feeling is that the murder may have happened after the camera was stopped." The newspaper summed up its findings this way: "No one is questioning that the photojournalist James Foley was beheaded, but camera trickery and slick post-production techniques appear to have been used."
Two unnamed video specialists quoted in the International Business Times of Australia claimed that portions of the footage looked staged and edited. James Alvarez, a British-American hostage negotiator, called the video "expertly staged". He pointed to the use of two separate cameras and a clip-on microphone attached to Foley's orange jumpsuit. Jeff Smith, associate director of the CU Denver National Center for Media Forensics, offered a blunter verdict: "What's most interesting is that the actual beheading that takes place in the videos, both of them are staged."
Eliot Higgins, the British analyst who writes as Brown Moses, took a different approach. He published photographic and video forensic evidence suggesting that the Foley video was shot at a spot in the hills south of the Syrian city of Raqqa. That city would matter again.
The FBI, MI5 and Scotland Yard all joined the manhunt for the man in black. His shoulder holster sat under his left shoulder, the usual arrangement for a right-handed person, yet his movements on screen suggested he was left-handed. Analysts also weighed his height, his general physique, the pattern of veins on the backs of his hands, his voice and his clothes. A team could also compare the topography of the landscape with maps to place the location.
On the 24th of August 2014, Sir Peter Westmacott, the British Ambassador to the United States, said Britain was very close to identifying him using sophisticated voice recognition technology. Pressed for more, he declined to give any other details. On the 14th of September, Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that the man's identity was known but had not yet been revealed.
On the 20th of September 2014, the United States Senate approved a reward of 10 million for information leading to the capture of anyone involved in the murders of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Cawthorne Haines. On the 25th of September, FBI Director James Comey told reporters, "I believe that we have identified him. I'm not going to tell you who I believe it is." Michael Ryan, an author and scholar from the Middle East Institute, explained the caution: "maybe 98 percent or 95 percent sure is not sure enough to put a man's name out." On the 20th of November, a bill widened the reward program to any American kidnapped and murdered by a "foreign terrorist organization" and capped it at 5 million. It was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
In August 2014, The Sunday Times had reported that Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a 23-year-old hip-hop musician from West London who performed as "L Jinny", had "emerged as a key suspect". Other sources named Abu Hussain Al-Britani, a 20-year-old computer hacker from Birmingham, and Abu Abdullah al-Britani, a man in his 20s from Portsmouth.
On the 26th of February 2015, The Washington Post named the man as Mohammed Emwazi. Its investigation was carried out by Souad Mekhennet and Adam Goldman. The paper described him as a British man in his mid-20s, born in Kuwait and raised in west London. It cited his University of Westminster student card for his birth date. The BBC said he was believed to be an associate of a former UK control order suspect who travelled to Somalia in 2006. That suspect was allegedly linked to a facilitation and funding network for the Somali militant group al-Shabab. Emwazi reportedly prayed on occasion at a mosque in Greenwich.
Reactions from presidents, grieving families and his own relatives soon followed.
President Barack Obama condemned the actions of Jihadi John and vowed punishment for every militant responsible for the videotaped killings. US Secretary of State John Kerry called him a "coward behind a mask". Admiral Alan West, a former UK Minister for Security and Counter-terrorism, said he was a "dead man walking" who would be "hunted down" like Osama bin Laden. David Cameron said he was absolutely certain that Jihadi John would "one way or another, face justice". UK Justice Secretary Chris Grayling and Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble also said he should be brought to justice.
A representative for the Sotloff family told the BBC that they wished to see Emwazi imprisoned. Bethany Haines, the daughter of David Haines, said, "It's a good step but I think all the families will feel closure and relief once there's a bullet between his eyes."
Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of UK anti-terror laws, argued that earlier policy might have changed the story. He said, "Had control orders been in place, in my view there is a realistic prospect that Mohammed Emwazi, and at least two of his associates, would have been the subject of control orders with a compulsory relocation."
Jassem Emwazi, his father, said he was ashamed of his son. When his son told him he was going to Syria "for jihad", Jassem had told him he hoped he would be killed. Yet the day after the naming, he issued a statement denying that his son was Jihadi John. In March 2015, the media reported that Emwazi's mother had recognised the voice in the videos as her son's, while his father denied this had happened. An unidentified cousin put out a harsher statement: "We hate him. We hope he will be killed soon. This will be good news for our family."
On the 8th of March 2015, The Sunday Times reported that Emwazi had apologised, through an unspecified third party, for the "problems and trouble the revelation of his identity has caused" his family. He expressed no remorse for his victims.
On the 12th of November 2015, two United States drones and a British drone carried out an airstrike in Raqqa. The target was Emwazi. The strike was timed for the moment he left a building and entered a vehicle. A US official called it a "flawless" and "clean hit" with no collateral damage, and said Emwazi was "evaporated". A senior US military official was quoted as saying, "we are 99% sure we got him."
David Cameron said Britain and the United States had been working "hand in glove, round the clock" to track Emwazi's location. He described the strike as "an act of self-defence". On the 14th of December 2015, President Obama stated that Emwazi had been "taken out".
On the 19th of January 2016, the Islamic State confirmed his death in its magazine Dabiq. The obituary showed him unmasked and called him Abu Muharib al-Muhajir. More photographs of him unmasked in Syria were released on the 26th of January 2016.
In July 2017, the German-based journalist Souad Mekhennet published I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad. The book details the hunt to identify and kill Jihadi John, partly through her own investigations. She had been the lead reporter on the Washington Post story that first revealed his true identity.
In September 2017, The Telegraph released old video footage showing Mohammed Emwazi and other IS members relaxing unmasked and talking casually.
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Common questions
Who was Jihadi John?
Jihadi John was the nickname of Mohammed Emwazi, a British militant of Kuwaiti origin seen in Islamic State videos in 2014 and 2015. He was born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri on the 17th of August 1988 and died on the 12th of November 2015.
Why was Mohammed Emwazi called Jihadi John?
Hostages nicknamed him John because he belonged to a four-man cell with British accents that they called The Beatles. Journalists later created the name Jihadi John, which The Spectator used on the 20th of August 2014.
Where was Jihadi John born and raised?
Mohammed Emwazi was born in Kuwait to a stateless Bidoon family of Iraqi origin. The family moved to the United Kingdom in 1994, when he was six, and settled in west London.
How was Jihadi John identified as Mohammed Emwazi?
The Washington Post identified him as Mohammed Emwazi on the 26th of February 2015. The investigation was carried out by Souad Mekhennet and Adam Goldman.
How did Jihadi John die?
Mohammed Emwazi was the target of a drone strike in Raqqa, Syria, on the 12th of November 2015. Two US drones and a British drone took part, and the Islamic State confirmed his death in the magazine Dabiq on the 19th of January 2016.
Who were the reported victims of Jihadi John?
The reported victims include James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Alan Henning and Peter Kassig. They also include Haruna Yukawa, Kenji Goto and 22 captive Syrian soldiers.
Was Jihadi John known to British intelligence before the videos?
Yes. MI5 knew of Mohammed Emwazi years before the videos, initially suspecting links to Al-Shabaab, and he was repeatedly prevented from travelling back to Kuwait. Former shadow home secretary David Davis later criticised the services over people who had slipped through the net.
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97 references cited across the entry
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- 2News'Jihadi John': Why do we give notorious criminals nicknames?Simon Usborne — 2 March 2015
- 3BookRoad Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of JihadDaniel Byman — Oxford University Press — 2019
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- 5NewsDozens of jihadis in fighting in Syria using the name 'al-Britani'Kim Sengupta — 27 February 2015
- 6NewsJihadi John: A quiet man who hated Britain and was 'always ready for war'25 February 2015
- 7NewsMohammed Emwazi Revealed As Jihad John: What We Know About Islamic State's Most Wanted ManJessica Elgot — 2 March 2015
- 9NewsThe moment Jihadi John may have become a terroristTerrence McCoy — 2 March 2015
- 10NewsIS acknowledges death of 'Jihadi John' in magazineDave Bryan — 19 January 2016
- 11News'The best employee we ever had': Mohammed Emwazi's former boss in KuwaitMartin Chulov — 2 March 2015
- 12News'Jihadi John': high degree of certainty US airstrike killed Mohammed Emwazi, sources sayClaire Phipps et al. — 13 November 2015
- 13NewsSpies were so much on Emwazi's case they bought his computerSean O'Neill et al. — 3 March 2015
- 14NewsMohammed Emwazi timeline: from school years with Tulisa Contostavlos to becoming Jihadi JohnEdward Malnick — Telegraph Media Group Limited — 26 February 2015
- 15News'Jihadi John' born into stateless family in KuwaitHussain Al-Qataria — March 2, 2015
- 16Islamic State: Profile of Mohammed Emwazi aka 'Jihadi John'Dominic Casciani — BBC — 27 February 2015
- 17NewsFormer London neighbours' shock at living next door to 'Jihadi John'Robert Booth et al. — 26 February 2015
- 18NewsPious teenager who turned into a zealot and heartless murdererFiona Hamilton et al. — Times Newspapers Limited — 27 February 2015
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- 23NewsHow London rapper L Jinny became Jihadi John, suspected of beheading James FoleyMegan Levy — 5 August 2014
- 24JournalJihadi John – a very British exportDouglas Murray — 20 August 2014
- 25News'Jihadi John', fears for Gazza and GCSE 'ghost of Gove' in headlinesAndy McFarlane — BBC — 22 August 2014
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- 27Isis video purports to show execution of US journalist Steven SotloffPaul Lewis — 2 September 2014
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- 29NewsISIS executes British aid worker David Haines; Cameron vows justice13 September 2014
- 30NewsNew ISIS Video Appears To Show Execution Of British Aid WorkerEllie Hall et al. — 3 October 2014
- 31NewsAlan Henning: Syria trips were worthwhile, says hostageCatrin Nye — 18 September 2014
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- 33NewsAlan Henning: An ordinary man who wanted to help SyriansCatrin Nye — 3 October 2014
- 34U.S. review of Islamic State video confirms American's deathKim Hjelmgaard — 16 November 2014
- 35NewsPeter Kassig's Powerful Silence Before ISIS Beheaded HimMark Thompson — 17 November 2014
- 36NewsPeter Kassig 'killed by gunshot before he was decapitated'Colin Freeman — 14 December 2014
- 37NewsAbdul Rahman Peter Kassig 'died from gunshot rather than decapitation,' suggest researchersLamiat Sabin — 15 December 2014
- 38NewsAbdul-Rahman Kassig: US hostage 'killed by IS'16 November 2014
- 39NewsISIL beheads Syria troops and US aid worker17 November 2014
- 40NewsISIS's brutal beheading video: Search for cluesAtika Shubert — 8 December 2014
- 41MagazineISIS Mass Beheading Video Took 6 Hours to Film and Multiple TakesNaina Bajekal — 10 December 2014
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- 43NewsJapanese War Reporter Was Abducted by ISIS After Trying to Save His FriendNaina Bajekal — 21 January 2015
- 44NewsIslamic State threatens two Japanese captives in videoLuke Baker — 20 January 2015
- 45NewsIslamic State crisis: Jordan air strikes 'destroy' IS hideouts8 February 2015
- 46NewsDavid Haines beheading: British PM vows to 'hunt down those responsible'Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — 14 September 2014
- 47Foley video with Briton was staged, experts sayDeborah Haynes — 25 August 2014
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- 49Media Forensics Experts Analyzing ISIS Video in Denver3 September 2014
- 50France 24: Exécution de James Foley: la traque de 'Jihadi John' est lancéeFrance 24 — 24 August 2014
- 51Bellingcat: The Hills of Raqqa – Geolocating the James Foley VideoEliot Higgins — 23 August 2014
- 52Is this where James Foley was killed?26 August 2014
- 53NewsPM returns from holiday after video shows US reporter beheaded by BritonAndrew Sparrow — 20 August 2014
- 54Uncovering James Foley's killer21 August 2014
- 55Hunt for 'British' Islamic State killer of US journalist James FoleyNick Allen et al. — 20 August 2014
- 56Hunt is on for ISIS terrorist: Video yields clues to identity of American journalist's left-handed executionerGordon Rayner et al. — 20 August 2014
- 57White House confirms authenticity of ISIS video showing beheading of reporterJoshua Rhett Miller — Fox News Channel — 3 September 2014
- 58Video clues that could unmask James Foley's murdererGordon Rayner — 20 August 2014
- 59Britain 'very close' to identifying 'Jihadi John' – suspected killer of James Foley – says ambassadorPhilip Sherwell — 24 August 2014
- 60NewsBritain close to identifying James Foley's killer, ambassador saysSteve Almasy — 26 August 2014
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- 64NewsFBI: U.S. identifies ISIS hostage executionerPaul Crompton — Al Arabiya — 26 September 2014
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- 66London hip-hop artist key suspect in beheadingRichard Kerbaj et al. — 2014-08-27
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- 69News'Jihadi John': The Islamic State killer behind the mask is a young LondonerSouad Mekhennet et al. — 26 February 2015
- 70News'Jihadi John' named as Mohammed Emwazi from London26 February 2015
- 71News'Jihadi John' From ISIS Execution Videos Was Under Watch by British IntelligenceSteven Erlanger — 26 February 2015
- 73'Jihadi John' Used To Be 'Kind And Gentle'Sky News — 27 February 2015
- 74NewsMohammed Emwazi: Tanzanian officer recalls airport arrest8 March 2015
- 75NewsMother recognised Mohammed Emwazi's voice on hostage videos2 March 2015
- 76NewsMohammed Emwazi's father: no proof my son is Isis executioner4 March 2015
- 77NewsAfter Beheading of Steven Sotloff, Obama Pledges to Punish ISISJulie Davis — 3 September 2014
- 78Jihadi John is 'dead man walking', says former security ministerTom Whitehead — 3 September 2014
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- 86NewsSecurity probes links to Emwazi3 March 2015
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- 90News'Jihadi John' Believed Killed in US Drone Strike, US Officials SayBrian Ross — 12 November 2015
- 91Remarks by the President on the Military Campaign to Destroy ISIL14 December 2015
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- 99Inside Jihadi John's lair: Britain's most notorious Isil terrorists unmasked together for first timeJosie Ensor — 25 September 2017