Inside Jihadi John's lair: Britain's most notorious Isil terrorists unmasked together for first time
Unmasked: The most notorious British figures in Isil
03:18 video link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ohns-lair-britains-notorious-isil-terrorists/
Josie Ensor, northern iraq 25 SEPTEMBER 2017 • 11:59AM
It could be a scene from any front room or coffee shop. Four young men laughing and joking as they charge their phones and catch up on their week.
Together, however, the quartet makes up Britain’s most notorious Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) jihadists; torturers, beheaders and serial killers who left the UK to fight in Syria.
The Telegraph has obtained extraordinarily rare, secretly-filmed footage of the fighters, seen here all together for the first time; unmasked and unguarded.
The men are Mohammed Emwazi, the executioner who beheaded two Britons and three Americans in grisly propaganda videos, Junaid Hussain, Isil’s number one hacker and husband of the UK’s most-wanted woman Sally Jones, Reyaad Khan, who recruited dozens of Britons to fight for Isil, and Christian convert and sniper Raymond Matimba.
They met regularly at this cafe in Raqqa, the capital of their so-called caliphate, off al-Sharakisa street in the centre of the city, which is now understood to be the nerve centre from where they and other foreign fighters plotted attacks on the UK and the West.
The one minute 30 second video was filmed in November 2014 by a Syrian man who smuggled it out of Raqqa earlier this month after his neighbourhood was liberated by US-backed forces.
He asked that he not be identified to protect the safety of his family still living under Isil.
He said he gained the trust of the jihadists after months of talking to them about Islam and Sharia law, a subject he is well-versed in.
He became one of the few locals allowed into the cafe, which was mostly used by British and other European fighters.
Hussain can be heard talking in British-accented English to the man behind the camera, the Telegraph’s source, about getting a memory card. He wonders how he is going to pay for it as he says it is impossible to send money there via Western Union.
Junaid Hussein, Isil’s number one hacker and husband of the UK’s most-wanted woman Sally Jones CREDIT: TELEGRAPH
Our source said the jihadists predominately used money transfer offices for small or local payments and Bitcoin for international transactions.
As one of Isil’s chief propagandists, Hussain was responsible for social media campaigns which lured hundreds of recruits from the UK to its “caliphate” spanning Iraq and Syria.
Our source said Hussain had run out of space on his laptop, which was filled with high-resolution videos that Isil’s media team had been shooting.
Junaid Hussein AKA Abu Hussain Al-Britani was one of Isil's top hackers
Stickers of the distinctive Twitter and Facebook logos can be seen on the back wall, above a sniper rifle which is propped up next to Matimba.
At the time the footage was shot Isil had thousands of accounts on these platforms, which were used for recruiting, planning and issuing threats.
The social media giants were accused of facilitating the terror group due to their slow response in removing them.
Emwazi and Khan can be seen sitting on a couch in the background, talking quietly amongst themselves out of earshot.
Mohammed Emwazi, left, plays on his phone alongside Reyaad Khan, described as the religious figure in the group CREDIT: TELEGRAPH
It is the first time any of the fighters have been captured on camera in Isil territory outside of the group’s own videos and reveals a previously unknown relationship between Britain’s most-wanted men.
From the cafe they discussed which European cities would be their next targets. Our source said they would talk about bomb-making and how to ensure maximum casualties.
On one occasion, in mid-2015, he overheard two French and one Belgian fighter plotting attacks on several Paris targets. Months later, those same men travelled back to their home countries on fake passports and went on to commit the Bataclan and Stade de France massacres which left 130 dead.
This reporter has been in near-weekly contact with the man for over two years. Sometimes conversations would cover topics as mundane as what he had for dinner that day, other times he would talk about the horrors of life under Isil.
He would often joke about how Raqqa had become like the United Nations - a city which had become host to foreigners from all over the world.
He was trapped in Raqqa for most of that time, unable to escape. Isil checkpoints meant no one without the proper permission was allowed out.
I would often worry for his safety, particularly after long absences from social media.
He managed to film the video of the British fighters by hiding his camera phone under a coat, knowing he would face execution if he was caught.
While the senior fighters enjoyed full use of phones, civilians living in the caliphate were prohibited from accessing the internet or contacting those who lived outside it.
“I was worried for my life if they caught me filming,” he told the Telegraph via the encrypted messaging app Telegram. “All the world wanted to see the man behind the mask. But after I filmed him I realised they would kill me if it got out, so I hid it to share in the future.”
He said the British fighters always walked around the city wearing balaclavas, never taking them off for fear of being identified.
The cafe was the one place they allowed themselves to be uncovered apart from their own homes, which were nearby.
“All of them wore black masks. Jihadi John was special and had a distinctive green one,” the man said. “It is the one you can see on his head in the video.”
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The footage was taken several months after a masked Emwazi executed British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, as well as three Americans, in videos that shocked the world.
Interestingly, our source said fellow fighters began to address him as John, appropriating the name “Jihadi John” he was given by the media after it emerged he was part of a four-man cell of British fighters dubbed The Beatles which tortured prisoners in Isil jails.
In conversations with potential recruits, on sites such as Ask.FM, Khan and the others had always denied knowing Jihadi John’s real identity.
Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, is described as 'quiet, calm but respected' on the streets of Raqqa
“Emwazi was only violent in the media, but in normal life he was a calm person,” our source said. “He spoke quietly and little, but when he did he was respected. He never hurt people in public, he would avoid any contact with civilians on the street.
“Junaid was the IT guy, the controller, the leader. He was the most feared. When he entered the cafe the others would all stand up and look to him. He would tell everyone want to do,” he said.
He describes Khan as the religious figure in the group as he had the best knowledge of Islamic law, or Sharia.
Hussain, 21, and Emwazi, 27, were killed in August and November 2015 respectively in US drone strikes in Raqqa. Khan became the first Briton to be killed in a targeted RAF drone strike when he was struck while travelling in his car in August the same year.
Least is known about Matimba, who was not previously thought to be a significant member.
Zimbabwe-born Raymond Matimba, 30, lived in Manchester and was responsible for training Western recruits as snipers CREDIT: TELEGRAPH
The video reveals his close relationship with the extremist group’s most senior fighters. Our source said the jihadist was responsible for training Western recruits as snipers.
The Telegraph was unable to establish whether the 30-year-old from Manchester is alive or dead, raising the prospect he could still be at large.
His mother told the paper last week she had no confirmation either way after cutting all contact with her son and changing her number in 2015.
Shiraz Maher, a lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and a leading expert on British jihadists, told the Telegraph: "I think this is incredible footage. Filming anything at all inside the caliphate is very risky,
"It's fascinating to watch these men we have studied for years,” he said. “This is not the staged and managed propaganda that Islamic State puts out, the things they want us to see. These are candid, ordinary moments.
“It reminds me of Hannah Arendt (the German-born political theorist who wrote several books about the Nazis) when she spoke about the banality of evil. These are murderers, torturers and beheaders, people who enslaved Yazidi women, and here they are sitting around talking about storage cards."
Watch the full footage here
Watch In Full: Exclusive covert recording of 'most wanted' British Jihadis
01:23 video link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ohns-lair-britains-notorious-isil-terrorists/
Mr Maher said another interesting aspect was that the British fighters had pretended not to know Jihadi John's real identity, both in online forums and in chats with potential recruits who asked about the masked man. "It's clear now they knew of him as the executioner, but they were protecting him".
"What they have in common is their importance within Isil - three of them were later killed in either US or RAF drone strikes. They were all from different parts of the UK. Emwazi was living in London, Khan was from Cardiff, Hussain from Birmingham, Matimba from Manchester - men from all corners of England brought together in this cafe thousands of miles away in Raqqa."
Show more
The Telegraph’s source said that while many of the British jihadists who travelled to Syria have been killed in fighting or US-led coalition drone strikes in Raqqa, “dozens and dozens” left for their last-remaining stronghold in Deir Ezzor to the south.
“They did not want to waste the Westerners on that battle, they needed them alive for greater things,” he said.
While the group has come under extreme pressure in recent months as local forces close in on the last of their caliphate, it is feared Isil still has the operational capability to orchestrate attacks on the West.
Britain has seen four attacks claimed by Isil this year.
Air Commodore Johnny Stringer, who is overseeing the UK air war against Isil, revealed last week that secret strikes are being carried out by RAF warplanes on jihadists in Syria.
Air Commodore Stringer said the extremist group still has a special unit dedicated to mounting attacks on the UK and Europe and that the strikes were to eliminate the threat.
“By dint of their activity, by being members of Daesh and frankly engaging the people we are here to protect, they (British citizens) become valid military targets and that's the way we look at it,” he said.
03:18 video link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ohns-lair-britains-notorious-isil-terrorists/
Josie Ensor, northern iraq 25 SEPTEMBER 2017 • 11:59AM
It could be a scene from any front room or coffee shop. Four young men laughing and joking as they charge their phones and catch up on their week.
Together, however, the quartet makes up Britain’s most notorious Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) jihadists; torturers, beheaders and serial killers who left the UK to fight in Syria.
The Telegraph has obtained extraordinarily rare, secretly-filmed footage of the fighters, seen here all together for the first time; unmasked and unguarded.
The men are Mohammed Emwazi, the executioner who beheaded two Britons and three Americans in grisly propaganda videos, Junaid Hussain, Isil’s number one hacker and husband of the UK’s most-wanted woman Sally Jones, Reyaad Khan, who recruited dozens of Britons to fight for Isil, and Christian convert and sniper Raymond Matimba.
They met regularly at this cafe in Raqqa, the capital of their so-called caliphate, off al-Sharakisa street in the centre of the city, which is now understood to be the nerve centre from where they and other foreign fighters plotted attacks on the UK and the West.
The one minute 30 second video was filmed in November 2014 by a Syrian man who smuggled it out of Raqqa earlier this month after his neighbourhood was liberated by US-backed forces.
He asked that he not be identified to protect the safety of his family still living under Isil.
He said he gained the trust of the jihadists after months of talking to them about Islam and Sharia law, a subject he is well-versed in.
He became one of the few locals allowed into the cafe, which was mostly used by British and other European fighters.
Hussain can be heard talking in British-accented English to the man behind the camera, the Telegraph’s source, about getting a memory card. He wonders how he is going to pay for it as he says it is impossible to send money there via Western Union.
Junaid Hussein, Isil’s number one hacker and husband of the UK’s most-wanted woman Sally Jones CREDIT: TELEGRAPH
Our source said the jihadists predominately used money transfer offices for small or local payments and Bitcoin for international transactions.
As one of Isil’s chief propagandists, Hussain was responsible for social media campaigns which lured hundreds of recruits from the UK to its “caliphate” spanning Iraq and Syria.
Our source said Hussain had run out of space on his laptop, which was filled with high-resolution videos that Isil’s media team had been shooting.
Junaid Hussein AKA Abu Hussain Al-Britani was one of Isil's top hackers
Stickers of the distinctive Twitter and Facebook logos can be seen on the back wall, above a sniper rifle which is propped up next to Matimba.
At the time the footage was shot Isil had thousands of accounts on these platforms, which were used for recruiting, planning and issuing threats.
The social media giants were accused of facilitating the terror group due to their slow response in removing them.
Emwazi and Khan can be seen sitting on a couch in the background, talking quietly amongst themselves out of earshot.
Mohammed Emwazi, left, plays on his phone alongside Reyaad Khan, described as the religious figure in the group CREDIT: TELEGRAPH
It is the first time any of the fighters have been captured on camera in Isil territory outside of the group’s own videos and reveals a previously unknown relationship between Britain’s most-wanted men.
From the cafe they discussed which European cities would be their next targets. Our source said they would talk about bomb-making and how to ensure maximum casualties.
On one occasion, in mid-2015, he overheard two French and one Belgian fighter plotting attacks on several Paris targets. Months later, those same men travelled back to their home countries on fake passports and went on to commit the Bataclan and Stade de France massacres which left 130 dead.
This reporter has been in near-weekly contact with the man for over two years. Sometimes conversations would cover topics as mundane as what he had for dinner that day, other times he would talk about the horrors of life under Isil.
He would often joke about how Raqqa had become like the United Nations - a city which had become host to foreigners from all over the world.
He was trapped in Raqqa for most of that time, unable to escape. Isil checkpoints meant no one without the proper permission was allowed out.
I would often worry for his safety, particularly after long absences from social media.
He managed to film the video of the British fighters by hiding his camera phone under a coat, knowing he would face execution if he was caught.
While the senior fighters enjoyed full use of phones, civilians living in the caliphate were prohibited from accessing the internet or contacting those who lived outside it.
“I was worried for my life if they caught me filming,” he told the Telegraph via the encrypted messaging app Telegram. “All the world wanted to see the man behind the mask. But after I filmed him I realised they would kill me if it got out, so I hid it to share in the future.”
He said the British fighters always walked around the city wearing balaclavas, never taking them off for fear of being identified.
The cafe was the one place they allowed themselves to be uncovered apart from their own homes, which were nearby.
“All of them wore black masks. Jihadi John was special and had a distinctive green one,” the man said. “It is the one you can see on his head in the video.”
Show more
The footage was taken several months after a masked Emwazi executed British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, as well as three Americans, in videos that shocked the world.
Interestingly, our source said fellow fighters began to address him as John, appropriating the name “Jihadi John” he was given by the media after it emerged he was part of a four-man cell of British fighters dubbed The Beatles which tortured prisoners in Isil jails.
In conversations with potential recruits, on sites such as Ask.FM, Khan and the others had always denied knowing Jihadi John’s real identity.
Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, is described as 'quiet, calm but respected' on the streets of Raqqa
“Emwazi was only violent in the media, but in normal life he was a calm person,” our source said. “He spoke quietly and little, but when he did he was respected. He never hurt people in public, he would avoid any contact with civilians on the street.
“Junaid was the IT guy, the controller, the leader. He was the most feared. When he entered the cafe the others would all stand up and look to him. He would tell everyone want to do,” he said.
He describes Khan as the religious figure in the group as he had the best knowledge of Islamic law, or Sharia.
Hussain, 21, and Emwazi, 27, were killed in August and November 2015 respectively in US drone strikes in Raqqa. Khan became the first Briton to be killed in a targeted RAF drone strike when he was struck while travelling in his car in August the same year.
Least is known about Matimba, who was not previously thought to be a significant member.
Zimbabwe-born Raymond Matimba, 30, lived in Manchester and was responsible for training Western recruits as snipers CREDIT: TELEGRAPH
The video reveals his close relationship with the extremist group’s most senior fighters. Our source said the jihadist was responsible for training Western recruits as snipers.
The Telegraph was unable to establish whether the 30-year-old from Manchester is alive or dead, raising the prospect he could still be at large.
His mother told the paper last week she had no confirmation either way after cutting all contact with her son and changing her number in 2015.
Shiraz Maher, a lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and a leading expert on British jihadists, told the Telegraph: "I think this is incredible footage. Filming anything at all inside the caliphate is very risky,
"It's fascinating to watch these men we have studied for years,” he said. “This is not the staged and managed propaganda that Islamic State puts out, the things they want us to see. These are candid, ordinary moments.
“It reminds me of Hannah Arendt (the German-born political theorist who wrote several books about the Nazis) when she spoke about the banality of evil. These are murderers, torturers and beheaders, people who enslaved Yazidi women, and here they are sitting around talking about storage cards."
Watch the full footage here
01:23 video link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ohns-lair-britains-notorious-isil-terrorists/
Mr Maher said another interesting aspect was that the British fighters had pretended not to know Jihadi John's real identity, both in online forums and in chats with potential recruits who asked about the masked man. "It's clear now they knew of him as the executioner, but they were protecting him".
"What they have in common is their importance within Isil - three of them were later killed in either US or RAF drone strikes. They were all from different parts of the UK. Emwazi was living in London, Khan was from Cardiff, Hussain from Birmingham, Matimba from Manchester - men from all corners of England brought together in this cafe thousands of miles away in Raqqa."
Show more
The Telegraph’s source said that while many of the British jihadists who travelled to Syria have been killed in fighting or US-led coalition drone strikes in Raqqa, “dozens and dozens” left for their last-remaining stronghold in Deir Ezzor to the south.
“They did not want to waste the Westerners on that battle, they needed them alive for greater things,” he said.
While the group has come under extreme pressure in recent months as local forces close in on the last of their caliphate, it is feared Isil still has the operational capability to orchestrate attacks on the West.
Britain has seen four attacks claimed by Isil this year.
Air Commodore Johnny Stringer, who is overseeing the UK air war against Isil, revealed last week that secret strikes are being carried out by RAF warplanes on jihadists in Syria.
Air Commodore Stringer said the extremist group still has a special unit dedicated to mounting attacks on the UK and Europe and that the strikes were to eliminate the threat.
“By dint of their activity, by being members of Daesh and frankly engaging the people we are here to protect, they (British citizens) become valid military targets and that's the way we look at it,” he said.
