“Jihadi John,” the black-clad English-speaking Islamic State militant thought to be shown beheading the group’s hostages on video, was alleged on Thursday by the Washington Post and the BBC to be a man named Mohammed Emwazi.
The Washington Post cited friends and others familiar with Emwazi’s case in its report identifying the suspected Islamic State executioner. The BBC did not cite its sources.
British officials declined to comment on the reports. NSC spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement that the U.S. “will not comment on ongoing investigations and therefore are not in a position to confirm or deny the identity of this individual.”
FBI Director James Comey said in September that the U.S. believed it had identified the Islamic State militant who executed American hostages, but did not release the name.
Emwazi, thought to be in his mid-20s, was born in Kuwait and grew up in a “well-to-do” West London family before graduating from the University of Westminster with a degree in computer programming, according to the Washington Post.
E-mails obtained by the Post suggested Emwazi was motivated to leave England for the Middle East after he was detained by authorities in two separate incidents: once while en route to a safari trip in Tanzania in 2009, and a second time while traveling between London and Kuwait in 2010 to finalize plans for his wedding.
“I had a job waiting for me and marriage to get started,” Emwazi wrote in a June 2010 e-mail to a British human rights worker he often corresponded with, as quoted by the Post. “I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London. A person imprisoned & controlled by security service men, stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace & country, Kuwait.”
This post has been updated.
