ISIS’ Now-Dead Executioner Unmasked in Raqqa for the First Time

The masked British militant Mohammed Emwazi from a video released by ISIS. PHOTO: AFP
The masked British militant Mohammed Emwazi from a video released by ISIS. PHOTO: AFP
TT
20

ISIS’ Now-Dead Executioner Unmasked in Raqqa for the First Time

The masked British militant Mohammed Emwazi from a video released by ISIS. PHOTO: AFP
The masked British militant Mohammed Emwazi from a video released by ISIS. PHOTO: AFP

British sources revealed the face of British terrorist Mohamed Emwazi, whose other names also included “Jihadi John" and "Jailer John," after receiving exclusive video footage of the terrorists inside Syria.

One of them was linked to the Manchester bombings, Raymond Matimba, according to a report published by the Telegraph daily.

Matimba, who was born in Zimbabwe but lived in Manchester before joining ISIS, was filmed in a cafe in Raqqa, Syria, talking with the likes of Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, ISIS hacker Junaid Hussain, and recruiter Reyaad Khan.

The video seems to show that Matimba, long thought to be a fringe figure in the terror group, is actually a key figure and is now likely to be the UK's most wanted terrorists - if he is still alive.

The footage was captured by a source in Raqqa in 2014 who gave it to The Telegraph after the area of the city he lives in was liberated by US-backed SDF forces, who now have the city surrounded.

Matimba - who also goes by the name Abu Qaqa al-Britani al-Afro- is known to have links with Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi, as the pair were recruited to join ISIS by the same man, Raphael Hostey.

They are also thought to have visited the same mosque together in south Manchester before Matimba left the UK, first going to Barcelona and then to Turkey where he crossed into Syria.

The recorder of the video told The Telegraph that Matimba was a key figure in the Manchester attack, telling ISIS commanders that he hated the city and wanted it to become a target.

He is then thought to have exchanged messages with Abedi in the months leading up to the attack, which killed 22 people, though what was said is unclear.

The source also said Matimba was known for his skills with a rifle and trained ISIS snipers. In every photo and the video, he is shown with an AK at his side.

Matimba's fate is currently unknown. His family says he updated them on his life in Raqqa until last year when he stopped responding.

It had been reported he was killed in the fighting, but his death has never been confirmed.

Now-deceased ISIS executioner Emwazi was born in Kuwait but raised in west London, where he was reported to have enjoyed a typical childhood and schooling.

ISIS claims he was radicalized sometime in 2005, after the London bombings, before making several trips to the Middle East over the next few years.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TT
20

Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".